Deidamia (opera)

Deidamia (HWV 42) is an opera in three acts composed by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Paolo Antonio Rolli. It premiered on 10 January 1741 at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.

The opera, a co-production with the Earl of Holderness, was first performed on 10 January 1741 at London's Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, but received only two more performances at a time when the public was becoming tired of Italian opera. The work was Handel's last Italian opera, and he subsequently turned his attention to composing oratorios. The opera was revived in the 1950s and is occasionally staged, e.g. the 2012 staging by David Alden for Netherlands Opera. It has also been recorded..

The opera is based upon the Greek mythological character Deidamia, the daughter of King Lycomedes of Skyros, who bore a child by Achilles, as told in the stories of Achilles on Skyros.

The oracle predicted that Achilles would die if he fought in the Trojan War. In an attempt to forestall this fate, his father Peleus has disguised him as a girl and sent him to live in the palace of his friend Lycomedes, on the island of Skyros, where he is brought up amongst Lycomedes' daughters and becomes the lover of the eldest, Deidamia. As the Greeks prepare for their war against Troy, the priest Calchas reveals that the city cannot be taken without Achilles' help. Ambassadors are sent to Skyros to retrieve him.

The ambassadors from Agamemnon arrive on Skyros: Ulysses, disguised under the name of Antilochus, Phoenix and Nestor (a silent role). Ulysses asks Lycomedes to contribute military help to the expedition, to which he readily agrees; he then demands that Lycomedes surrender the young Achilles, rumoured to be concealed on the island and essential to the Greek victory. Loyal to his friend Peleus, Lycomedes denies that he is sheltering Achilles, but permits his guests to search for him.

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