Stormy skies and timeless myth: The Atlanta Opera’s ‘Semele’ blends Baroque and contemporary inspirations

Mark Gresham | 11 JUN 2025

As if foreshadowing the drama to come, a fierce thunderstorm swept across Atlanta this past Saturday evening ahead of The Atlanta Opera’s opening night performance of George Frideric Handel’s Semele. The severe weather complicated the drive toward the venue, located just beyond the city’s northwest edge, but by the time I arrived at Cobb Energy Centre, the intense gulley-washer had subsided. Still, dark clouds loomed large over the venue—the final cadence of a Jovian prelude to a night in which gods and mortals collided through music and mythic intrigue on the Atlanta Opera stage.

Semele is an oratorio that aspires to opera, occupying a unique place in Handel’s output—neither fully one nor the other. Though it can be performed in its entirety as a concert work, it is frequently staged. The first act adheres closely to the oratorio tradition, while the later acts grow increasingly operatic—not in the familiar Italianate style of Handel’s earlier operas, but with greater flexibility in the internal forms.

Originally penned by Restoration playwright William Congreve around 1705, the libretto for Semele lay dormant for decades before being adapted for Handel’s 1744 oratorio. Congreve’s text reflects the era’s fascination with the dangers and ecstasies of desire—akin to the sentiments in Thomas Otway’s verse (above), where “limits on love” are futile against its inner compulsion. Semele, driven by sensual and erotic ambition, mirrors these ideals: confident, transgressive, and ultimately tragic. Beneath its mythic surface lies a psychological drama in which love, power, and hubris collide—making Semele a surprisingly modern tale of aspiration and consequence.

It’s this kind of hybridity that The Atlanta Opera’s new production of Semele embraces—combining historically informed Baroque musical style, performed on modern instruments under the baton of conductor Christine Brandes, with 21st-century staging that eschews period literalism in favor of stylized modernity. The result is a carefully calibrated contrast: Baroque-informed musical expression paired with sleek, contemporary visuals that evoke timeless themes without anchoring the mythology, psychology, or action to any specific era.

Brandes, a seasoned interpreter of Baroque and Classical-era music, led the Atlanta Opera Orchestra with a singer’s sensitivity to line and phrasing, allowing the ornamentation and dramatic nuances of the score to emerge naturally. Though played on modern instruments, the ensemble achieved a texture and style that supported the vocal lines rather than overwhelming them. The Atlanta Opera Chorus, prepared by Rolando Salazar, was precise and responsive, fulfilling a quasi–Greek Chorus role: onstage in Acts I and III and situated behind the orchestra in the pit during Act II, where—though unseen—they contributed to the drama through musical commentary.

Soprano Lauren Snouffer, in the title role, navigated Semele’s trajectory—from mortal ambition to divine annihilation—with both vocal agility and emotional depth. Her “Myself I shall adore” shimmered with narcissistic delight, while her later scenes revealed increasing fragility, culminating in a tragic final aria that was sung with aching clarity. As Jupiter and Apollo, tenor Josh Lovell displayed a warm, flexible tone, striking a balance between godly power and human tenderness.

Mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin delivered a commanding performance in the dual roles of Juno and Ino, channeling fiery vengeance in Juno and delicate nuance in Ino’s quieter devotion. Countertenor Nils Wanderer (Athamas) sang with elegant phrasing, while bass William Guanbo Su (Somnus/Cadmus) brought rich sonority and comic gravity—especially during the scene featuring sunglasses-wearing Somnus in his “nightclub.” Elisa Sunshine’s Iris, adorned with LED-lit winged shoes and costume, added sparkle to scenes with Juno. Dancer Bailey Jo Harbaugh, as the silent Pasithea, along with a small ensemble of dancer colleagues, provided expressive physical counterpoint under Amir Levy’s choreography.

The staging, directed by Tomer Zvulun, avoided heavy-handed symbolism in favor of clean, gestural storytelling. Erhard Rom’s scenic and projection designs merged classical motifs with minimalistic abstraction—architecture suggested more than depicted, heavens rendered in shifting washes of light and video. Vita Tzykun’s costuming followed suit: sleek fabrics, bold silhouettes, and occasional bursts of color conveyed divine status or mortal desire without resorting to mythological cliché. Lighting designer Robert Wierzel illuminated the stage with painterly chiaroscuro, heightening the contrast between divine and mortal tableaux.

The approach could have resulted in visual-musical dissonance, but instead, the contrast proved complementary. The modern visual world sharpened the outlines of Handel’s musical storytelling, while the music grounded the production’s abstract beauty in emotional truth. Zvulun and Brandes together shaped a version of Semele that was not merely updated but reimagined—rooted in the 18th century yet speaking fluently to today’s stage and sensibilities. ■

EXTERNAL LINKS:

• The Atlanta Opera: atlantaopera.org
• Christine Brandes: etudearts.com/artists/christine-brandes
• Tomer Zvulun: tomerzvulun.com
• Lauren Snouffer: etudearts.com/artists/lauren-snouffer
• Josh Lovell: joshlovelltenor.com
• Catherine Martin: uiatalent.com/artists3/catherine-martin
• Nils Wanderer: nilswanderer.de
• William Guanbo Su: williamguanbosu.com
• Elisa Sunshine: elisasunshinesoprano.com
• Bailey Jo Harbaugh: baileyjharbaugh.wixsite.com/

About the author:

Mark Gresham is publisher and principal writer of EarRelevant. He began writing as a music journalist over 30 years ago, but has been a composer of music much longer than that. He was the winner of an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for music journalism in 2003.

Read more by Mark Gresham.

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