Semele

Seduction, ambition and divine consequence

Pinchgut Opera closes its season with a thrilling new staging of Handel’s Semele, a work of seductive beauty, dramatic intrigue, and dazzling vocal fireworks.

Nearly 25 years after Semele became the very first opera Pinchgut presented, its return is a celebration of how the company has evolved, and the ambition that continues to drive it forward. Acclaimed Australian director Neil Armfield, whose visionary productions of Platée (2021) and Julius Caesar (2024) were hailed as landmark achievements, now turns his insight and theatrical flair to Semele. The story is at once mythic and human: a mortal woman becomes the lover of Jupiter, king of the gods. Driven by her longing for immortality, she demands to see him in his true, divine form— a choice that seals her fate when Jupiter’s jealous wife,

Juno, intervenes. A powerhouse cast brings Handel’s richly drawn characters to life. Beloved Pinchgut artists Alexandra Oomens and Catherine Carby return after unforgettable past performances, joined by British tenor David Webb and countertenor Austin Haynes in their exciting Pinchgut debuts. Together with the emotional force of Cantillation and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, they create a performance of grandeur, intimacy, and colour.

Handel’s score brims with moments of rapture, wit, and aching beauty, charting a journey from ecstasy to ruin. In Semele, the line between desire and destruction has never sounded so thrilling, bringing the season to a spectacularly triumphant close.