Composer: John Eccles
Performer: Academy of Ancient Music, Graeme Broadbent, Rory Carver, William Wallace, Jonathan Brown, Anna Dennis, Aoife Miskelly, James Rhoads, Helen Charlston, Héloïse Bernard, Bethany Horak-Hallett, Richard Burkhard, Christopher Foster, Jolyon Loy, Julian Perkins
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: AAM Records
Catalogue: AAM012
Release: 2021
Size: 4.1 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Semele
CD 01
01. Overture
Act I Scene 1
02. Behold Auspicious Flashes Rise
03. Lucky Omens Bless Our Rites
04. Daughter, Obey, Hear, and Obey
05. Ah Me! What Refuge Now Is Left Me?
06. See, She Blushing Turns Her Eyes
07. Hymen Haste, Thy Torch Prepare
08. Alas! She Yields, and Has Undone Me
09. Why Dost Thou Thus Untimely Grieve?
10. Symphony (1)
11. Avert These Omens, All Ye Pow’rs! (1)
12. Avert These Omens, All Ye Pow’rs! (2)
13. Again Auspicious Flashes Rise
14. Symphony (2)
15. Cease Your Vows
Act I Scene 2
16. O Athamas, What Torture Hast Thou Born!
17. Turn, Hopeless Lover, Turn Thy Eyes
18. She Weeps!
19. Such Unavailing Mercy Is in Beauty Found
20. Ah Me, Too Much Afflicted!
21. You’ve Undone Me
Act I Scene 3
22. Ah, Wretched Prince, Doom’d to Disastrous Love!
Act I Scene 4
23. See, See, Jove’s Priests and Holy Augurs Come
24. Hail, Cadmus, Hail!
25. Endless Pleasure, Endless Love
26. Haste, Haste, to Sacrifice Prepare
27. Cease Your Mourning
Act II Scene 1
28. Symphony
29. Iris, Impatient of Thy Stay
30. There from Mortal Cares Retiring
31. Thither Flora the Fair
32. No More, I’ll Hear No More
33. Not One of Curst Agenor’s Race I’ll Spare
34. Hear, Mighty Queen
Act II Scene 2
35. See, After the Toils of an Amorous Fight
36. Come Zephyrs, Come, While Cupid Sings
37. Dance of the Zephyrs
38. O Sleep, Why Dost Thou Leave Me?
Act II Scene 3
39. Sleep Forsaking
40. Let Me Not Another Moment
41. Lay Thy Doubts and Fears Aside
42. Nor Was I Absent
43. If Cheerful Hopes
44. If This Be Love, Not You Alone
45. Ah Me!
46. With My Frailty Don’t Upbraid Me
47. Thy Sex of Jove’s the Masterpiece
48. Thy Needless Fears Remove
49. By My Command
Act II Scene 4
50. Symphony
CD 02
Act III Scene 1
01. Symphony
02. Somnus, Awake
03. Leave Me, Loathsome Light
04. Dull God, Can’st Thou Attend the Waters Fall
05. Only Love on Sleep Has Pow’r
06. Somnus, Arise
07. More Sweet Is That Name
08. My Will Obey
09. Away Let Us Haste
Act III Scene 2
10. I Love and Am Lov’d
Act III Scene 3
11. Thus Shaped Like Ino
12. Behold in This Mirrour
13. O Ecstasy of Happiness!
14. Ah Charming All O’er!
15. Be Wise as You Are Beautiful
16. Unknowing Your Intent
17. But How Shall I Attain to Immortality?
18. Thus Let My Thanks Be Paid
19. Rich Odours Fill the Fragrant Air
Act III Scene 4
20. Come to My Arms, My Lovely Fair
21. Tho’ ‘Tis Easie to Please You
22. When I Languish with Anguish
23. I Dare Not
24. Oh Why Art Thou Thus Insensible?
25. I Ever Am Granting
26. Speak, Speak Your Desire
27. Swear by the Stygian Lake
28. Then Cast Off This Human Shape Which You Wear
29. Ah! Take Heed What You Press
30. I’ll Be Pleas’d with No Less
Act III Scene 5
31. Ah! Whither Is She Gone!
Act III Scene 6
32. Above Measure Is the Pleasure
Act III Scene 7
33. Symphony (1)
34. Ah Me! Too Late I Now Repent
35. Symphony (2)
Act III Scene 8
36. Of My Ill-Boding Dream
Act III Scene 9
37. Apollo Comes to Relieve Your Care
38. From Tyrannous Love
39. Then Mortals Be Merry (1)
40. Then Mortals Be Merry (2)
The Academy of Ancient Music, Cambridge Handel Opera Company, Cambridge Early Music and Julian Perkins are proud to present the first professional recording of John Eccles’s Semele (c.1707), a notable early setting of the great English libretto by William Congreve better known in a version by GF Handel from 1744. The Academy of Ancient Music’s mission is to explore, reveal and preserve the great treasure house of baroque and classical music, and a spirit of newfound discovery runs through all our work. Eccles’s Semele is the next step on this journey, released here on 2 CDs in deluxe hardback presentation with an extensive accompanying full-colour booklet containing scholarly essays, Stephen Fry’s modern re-telling of the story, autograph manuscript images of Eccles’ score, the full libretto text and much more. A fascinating insight into how opera in England might have developed after Henry Purcell’s death had not Handel moved to London in 1712, Eccles’s Semele is the perfect addition to any baroque-music lover’s library.