Deidamia

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. Performance history A ballad opera on the same story by John Gay had been performed in London in 1733, under the title Achilles. Handel's 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 it receives staged performances today, e.g. the 2012 staging by David Alden for Netherlands Opera. Roles