New Chamber opera's annual oratorio in Trinity Term has become an established tradition with highly successful performances of Acis and Galatea and Solomon. Unfortunately, Handel's Semele on the other hand has not yet enjoyed a similar consistency of performance since its premiere in Covent Garden in February 1744. The dramatic story of gods and mortals was originally conceived by Handel as an opera bit first performed 'after the manner of an oratorio', in other words a concrt performance as NCO will give next month. Yest even as an oratorio its reception has been problematic. Its amorous topic and pantheistic premise seems not to have been greeted by conservative 18th-century audiences with the same enthusiasm which the work has received in recent decades. 

Despite misguided efforts to stage the work in recent years, it remains an oratorio, and one of Hendel's finest; his score includes the show stoppers 'Where ere you walk'. 'Sleep why dost thou leave me' and 'If I persist in gazing'.