Where Shall I Fly, from Hercules

Born in Germany and trained in Italy, George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) was a pioneer in creating operas in English. Italian opera had taken London by storm, but in the 1730s that fad was fading. Deftly, Handel borrowed from his experiences writing biblical oratorios (essentially non-staged operas) to fashion a new genre of opera seria in English. His first success came with Hercules (1744). The tension in the drama centers on Queen Dejanira, wife of Hercules, and her suspicion that he has been unfaithful with the newly-captured Princess Iole. In one source (Sophocles’ Women of Trachis), Dejanira’s suspicion is merited. But Handel’s librettist followed Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in which Dejanira’s accusations are unfounded. The outcome in both traditions is the death and apotheosis of Hercules, who perishes frightfully when he puts on a robe sent by Dejanira. The garment, intended to magically restore his marital allegiance, devours his flesh and poisons his soul.
While we might expect the death and transfiguration of Hercules to take center stage, Dejanira’s descent into madness after her fatal error is the opera’s emotional crux. “Where shall I fly?” starts as accompanied recitative, occasionally breaking out in the vigorous, concitato style when Dejanira laments her terrible mistake. But rather than coming to a full stop and beginning a self-contained aria, Handel leads the music through numerous tempo changes that characterize Dejanira’s wavering emotional state. The vocal writing explores an incredible range, revels in running 16th notes and quicksilver mood changes.

(c) Jason Stell