Description:

From the prestigious New Zealand Opera House, known as Kiri Te Kanawa's home opera house, we present Handel's masterpiece "Semele". This is one of Handel's works from the period (1740s) when he concentrated on composing oratorios sung in English, such as "Messiah," and the libretto is by William Congreve, based on the forbidden love between gods and humans from Greek mythology. In this performance, Jove rides his motorcycle to the altar of Semele's wedding and kidnaps her... It begins like a scene from an action movie. The opera is dramatically performed by the excellent chorus and orchestra of the Opera House, led by Peter Walls, a leading scholar of Baroque music, and the excellent singers Emma Pearson as the title role and Amitai Parti as the wild Jove. (C)RS