THE METAMORPHOSIS of SEMELE the Transformation of the Characterisation of Semele from Ovid to Handel
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THE METAMORPHOSIS OF SEMELE The Transformation of the Characterisation of Semele from Ovid to Handel VICTORIA MARIE MOSTUE Supervised by Prof. Han Lamers SUBMITTED FOR THE MASTER’S DEGREE IN CLASSICAL LANGUAGES (LATIN) – LAT4190 DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, CLASSICS, HISTORY OF ART AND IDEAS FACULTY OF HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY OF OSLO SPRING 2020 “In Semele, European music achieved its most complete Ovidian masterpiece.” Charles Martindale, Ovid Renewed, 10 Abstract The ancient mythological figure Semele, mother of Bacchus, appears in innumerous works from antiquity to modern time. Two such works are Ovid’s epic poem the Metamorphoses and Handel’s oratorio Semele. Although the latter is based on the former, its characterisation of Semele has been greatly altered from that of its source material. This thesis therefore examines the relationship between how Semele is characterised in the Metamorphoses and in Semele in order to see the oratorio in a clearer light. The study argues that although there are significant differences between the two works’ characterisation of Semele, close literary analysis of their portrayals reveals several similarities. It also includes a discussion on whether the characterisation of Semele in the oratorio is caused its creators desire to convey a particular message. Furthermore, this thesis places the oratorio in a wider context by analysing other ancient texts in which Semele appears and by tracing the chain of receptions. From this it is evident that several of Semele’s characteristics in the oratorio which are not present in the Metamorphoses or other ancient texts can be found in some of the post- classical works which preceded Semele. However, it also becomes clear that while Semele to some extent resembles previous works, the oratorio stands out for its unique portrayal of its titular character. ii Preface COVID-19 Unfortunately, the majority of this thesis was written after the outbreak of COVID-19. This meant that because of travel restrictions I had to cancel a research trip to London, for which I had received a stipend, which prevented me from visiting, amongst others, the University College London and the Gerald Coke Handel Collection. My access to relevant source material was further restricted by the temporary shutting down of the University of Oslo’s library. Although these restrictions had an impact on my thesis overall, those instances which were most affected have been indicated with footnotes. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my immense gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Han Lamers, who has been of invaluable help as an adviser and advocatus diaboli from the very beginning of this project, as well as a long-distance ‘librarian’ after the lockdown, and without whom I would not have been able to write this thesis. I am also very grateful to Prof. Mathilde Skoie for all her help and advice, to all the other members of the academic staff at IFIKK who have taught me so expertly throughout my studies, and to everyone who attended the two Classics seminars where I presented my ongoing work on this thesis. My deepest thanks also go to Johanna Francisca Treider, who has been of great help with acquiring source material, and to my other fellow classics students, whose insight and encouragements have been very helpful and whose inspiring passion for our subject knows no bounds. Last but not least, I would like to thank my mother, who seemingly never tires of discussing and proofreading my work, and who has provided constant moral support throughout this process. iii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................................... II PREFACE ...................................................................................................................................................................... III COVID-19 ................................................................................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................................................. III 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 STATUS QUAESTIONIS .............................................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 RECEPTION AND TRANSFORMATION ........................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISATION ....................................................................................................................... 8 1.4 MUSICAL RHETORIC .............................................................................................................................................. 11 2. THE ANCIENT SOURCE MATERIAL .......................................................................................................................... 13 2.1 OVID .................................................................................................................................................................. 14 2.2 ZEUS’ RIVAL ......................................................................................................................................................... 16 2.3 THE MANY MYTHS OF SEMELE ............................................................................................................................... 17 2.4 SEMELE AND LUSTFULNESS ..................................................................................................................................... 18 2.5 SEMELE’S MAXIMAL CHARACTER ............................................................................................................................. 19 3. THE CHAIN OF RECEPTIONS ................................................................................................................................... 20 3.1 SEMELE IN A POST-CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN DISCOURSE ................................................................................................. 21 3.2 SEMELE IN NATURE ............................................................................................................................................... 23 3.3 SEMELE ENTERS THE STAGE .................................................................................................................................... 25 3.4 SEMELE ENTERS THE CENTRE STAGE ........................................................................................................................ 27 3.5 SEMELE’S NEW MAXIMAL CHARACTER ..................................................................................................................... 28 4. HANDEL’S SEMELE ................................................................................................................................................. 30 4.1 BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................................................................... 30 4.2 EDITIONS AND PERFORMANCES ............................................................................................................................... 31 4.3 SYNOPSIS ............................................................................................................................................................ 33 4.4 CHARACTERISATION .............................................................................................................................................. 34 5. SEMELE AND THE WIDER CONTEXT ....................................................................................................................... 40 5.1 OVID AND THE ORATORIO ...................................................................................................................................... 40 5.2 INTERPRETATIONS OF SEMELE ................................................................................................................................. 42 5.3 SEMELE AND PRECEDING CHARACTERISATIONS .......................................................................................................... 45 6. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................................................................... 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................................ 51 PRIMARY LITERATURE .................................................................................................................................................. 51 SECONDARY LITERATURE .............................................................................................................................................. 53 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................................... 59 EXTRACTS FROM HANDEL’S SEMELE ............................................................................................................................... 59 iv 1. INTRODUCTION The ancient