Sémélé is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 by Marin Marais

Marin Marais

Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles...

 first performed on April 9, 1709 by the Paris Opera

Paris Opera

The Paris Opera is the primary opera company of Paris, France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the Académie d'Opéra and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and renamed the Académie Royale de Musique...

 at the Palais-Royal. The opera is in the form of a tragédie en musique with five acts and a prologue.

Marais's opera has been published in a modern performing score by France's Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, and the full opera was due to be given in Europe during the 2006 summer festival season.

John Eccles 1707 opera Semele is based on the same myth, and set to a libretto by William Congreve

William Congreve

William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.-Early life:Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England . His parents were William Congreve and his wife, Mary ; a sister was buried in London in 1672...

. This libretto (in expanded form) later served as the basis for yet another opera, with the same title as Eccles', by George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

 (1744). Handel's treatment of this myth is now better known than either Marais' or Eccles'.

Roles and role creators

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, April 9, 1709 (Conductor:)
Apollon	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...  (haute-contre Haute-contre The haute-contre is a rare type of high tenor voice, predominant in French Baroque and Classical opera until the latter part of the eighteenth century.-History:... )	Beaufort
Sémélé	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Françoise Journet Françoise Journet Françoise Journet was a French operatic soprano.Beginning her career at the Lyon Opera, Journet eventually became a pupil of Marie Le Rochois in Paris. In 1699 she appeared as Mélisse in the premiere of Amadis de Gréce by Destouches and subsequently created a number of important roles in operas by...
Dorine	soprano	Marie-Catherine Poussin
The grand priestess of Bacchus	soprano	Dun
Junon	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Françoise Dujardin
Adraste	tenor (haute-contre)	Jacques Cochereau
Jupiter	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard was a French operatic baritone .Thévenard was born at Orléans or possibly Paris. Arriving in Paris in 1690, he studied under the composer André Cardinal Destouches and went on to become a member of the Académie Royale de Musique...
Mercure	baritone	Jean Dun "pére"
Cadmus, grand priest of Bacchus	baritone	Charles Hardouin Charles Hardouin Charles Hardouin was a French operatic baritone .Beginning his career as a cathedral singer, Hardouin was engaged by the Paris Opéra as a principal singer around 1693-1694, though from 1697 onwards he was eclipsed by the more powerful Gabriel-Vincent Thévenard...
First shepherdess	soprano	Aubert
Second shepherdess	soprano	Daulin
Third shepherdess	soprano	Boisé

Recordings

A recording of the work under the direction of Hervé Niquet

Hervé Niquet

Hervé Niquet is a French conductor, harpsichordist, tenor, and the director of Le Concert Spirituel, specializing in French Baroque music.-Biography:...

was published by the firm Glossa http://www.shannonmercer.com/semele.htm.

A recording of instrumental music from the opera, performed by Wieland Kuijken and Montréal Baroque, was released in late 2006.

Sources

• Amadeus Almanac