Hercules (Handel)

Hercules (HWV 60) is a Musical Drama in three acts by George Frideric Handel, composed in July and August 1744. The English language libretto was by the Reverend Thomas Broughton, based on Sophocles's Women of Trachis and the ninth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Hercules was first given at the King's Theatre in London on 5 January 1745 in concert style. There were only two performances in the original run. The role of Lichas was originally a small one for tenor, but was rewritten at great length, with six airs, for Susanna Cibber, she, however, was too ill to sing on the first night, and the music was either omitted or redistributed on that occasion. She sang in the second performance on January 12, but the music for the chorus "Wanton God" and the air "Cease, ruler of the day" was never given in this opera: the latter was adapted for the final chorus of Theodora. The work was a total failure and caused Handel to suspend his season. Hercules obtained three further hearings, two in 1749 and one in 1752, for which the role of Lichas was entirely eliminated, and much of the other music was also cut.

Hercules was originally performed in the theatre but like an oratorio without stage action. It is argued that this contributed to its later neglect as it did not make the transition into the church and the concert hall successfully. Its revival therefore occurred through reappraisal in the context of stage presentation, when it was acclaimed by Romain Rolland, Henry Prunières, Paul Henry Lang and others as one of the supreme masterpieces of its age. The first modern performance was in Münster in 1925. Hercules is sometimes given a full staging as an opera today. Among other performances, it was given in a procution by Peter Sellars at the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2011.

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