Deianira nel teatro musicale: memorie poetiche antiche dal libretto del musical drama Hercules di G.F. Handel (1745)

Abstract

For the 1744/1745 London musical season Thomas Broughton, an English priest, gave a libretto entitled Hercules to George Frideric Handel. The librettist clearly acknowledges in the preface of his work Sophocles’ Trachiniae and Ovid’s Metamorphoses as sources. This paper, providing an accurate textual analysis of three passages of the libretto, focuses on the characterization of Deianira and shows its debt to the ancient works mentioned by Broughton and at least to two other not-declared Latin sources: Ovid’s Ninth Heroid and Hercules Oetaeus. A brilliant example of classical reception in musical theatre, Hercules reveals a moral intent similar to all biblical oratorios of the same period: in this case, guarding against the risks of jealousy.