Total Archery

Apollo e Dafne was probably begun in Venice in 1709, but was not completed until after Handel’s arrival in Hanover in 1710, to take up his appointment as Kapellmeister to the Elector. The instrumentation is more colourful than usual, and in addition to the usual strings Handel added a flute, a pair of oboes and a bassoon. The musical structure is relatively simple, with a succession of emotionally varied da capo arias and a pair of duets for the two main characters, Dafne, a soprano, and Apollo, a bass. Since Handel’s original overture has not survived, this performance is prefaced by the opening movement of his Concerto Opus 3, No.1, which was probably composed at the same time.

Handel's Apollo e Dafne is a difficult work to put in context. Completed in Hanover in 1710 but possibly begun in Italy, its purpose isn't clear, while, as secular cantatas go, it's long (40 minutes) and ambitiously scored for two soloists and an orchestra of strings, oboes, flute, bassoon and continuo. But this isn't just a chunk of operatic experimentation: it sets its own, faster pace than the leisurely unfolding of a full-length Baroque stage-work, yet its simple Ovidian episode, in which Apollo's pursuit of the nymph Dafne results in her transformation into a tree, is drawn with all the subtlety and skill of the instinctive dramatic genius that Handel was.