Berenice, regina d'Egitto

Berenice was written and performed in 1737, something of an annus horribilis for Handel. With opera finances teetering on the brink from the continued rivalry with the ‘opera of the nobility’, Handel worked himself so hard that he had a stroke and had to hand over the direction of Berenice to John Christopher Smith. The opera centres on Berenice, Queen of Egypt. The Roman Empire sends Alessandro, a Romanised Egyptian prince, to marry Berenice; Alessandro (the prince) is keen, but Berenice is unimpressed. She has her sights on the Macedonian prince Demetrio. But he loves Berenice’s sister Selene, and plots to put her on the throne in place of Berenice. After many complications and plot-twists, Alessandro’s dignity and magnanimity win Berenice’s love; she gives up Demetrio to Selene and everyone lives happily ever after. Although rarely performed, Berenice, as the Earl of Shaftesbury said at the time, contains music which ‘may properly be call’d sublime.’