In hosting an international study day on Deidamia (1741), the Handel Institute brought its experience in organizing conferences to bear on an opera attracting growing interest from performers and musicologists alike. Plans for a future production of Deidamia by Ensemble Grand Siècle, who won the Handel Institute Opera Award in 2023, provided the impetus to reassess this often overlooked composition. The study day brought together five speakers, who provided attendees with nuanced and interdisciplinary insights into the work. They investigated generic terminology, editorial approaches, alternative libretto settings and the singers who were part of the cast for Deidamia as well as the broader historical consciousness and cultural ideals that emerged in eighteenth-century Britain and Italy. Deidamia has occupied an interesting and distinctive place in Handel scholarship as his last opera, a position that reflects the composer’s choice to discontinue writing in the genre. Contrary to the notion that it was ‘a disappointing opera’ and ‘a sad culmination to [Handel’s] long and glorious career in the theatre’ (Winton Dean, Handel’s Operas 1726–1741 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006), 474), the Handel Institute International Study Day afforded participants the chance to challenge this sentiment and explore this lesser-known work in a comprehensive manner. Once overshadowed in historical reception, and perhaps in modern times too, recent research has cultivated renewed appreciation for Deidamia and its unique standing among the composer’s works.

Colin Timms (University of Birmingham) spoke in a research seminar with Reinhard Strohm (University of Oxford) entitled ‘Rolli’s and Handel’s Deidamia: Poetry and Music’. That inconsistencies appeared between librettos and wordbooks is well established in Handel scholarship, and Timms pointed to differences between Rolli’s libretto and the printed wordbook, demonstrating its possible deviation from the original libretto and the impact of such differences on Handel’s musical setting. In particular, the notion of proofreading was raised: who was responsible for checking the wordbook against the libretto, and at what stage? Other talking-points included aria and recitative classification: Timms suggested that ‘aria’ and ‘recitative’ might not serve as appropriate terms for several musical settings that inhabited the ‘twilight zone’ in this work. He criticized Winton Dean for using the term ‘cavatina’ for some items. Instead, he advocated using terms such as ‘cavata’ and ‘arioso’ (as each has a precise meaning) in preference to more general nomenclature. Strohm then gave an editorial perspective on text-setting using the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe edition by the late Terence Best, to whom homage was paid. Handel was a protean text-setter and, as Strohm suggested, is perhaps the most talented up to the present day. The discrepancies investigated, in particular concerning the title Deidamia itself, indicate that Handel set this word in a variety of ways, with the stress on different syllables: ‘Deidamia’, ‘Deidamia’ and ‘Deidamia’. These findings called into question its correct pronunciation, highlighting further problems with homogeneous approaches in modern editing.

Exploring other eighteenth-century libretto settings based on the same mythological tales (in this case, those relating to Achilles) provided the opportunity to detect variations in narrative structure and characterization, and to assess their overall significance. In ‘Achille in Sciro: Rolli’s and Metastasio’s Versions of the Myth’ Francesca Menchelli-Buttini (Conservatorio di Pesaro) examined the role of the librettist as well as the similarities and deviations between the respective librettos. That alterations to the narrative rendered particular dramatic interactions inessential – in this case, selected interactions with Rolli’s Achilles – suggests that this remoulding might have favoured musical drama over narrative coherence.

Matthew Gardner (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) investigated performers in ‘The 1741 Cast of Deidamia – Handel and His Singers’. He spoke about the assorted English and Italian cast, which was near indistinguishable from that featuring in Imeneo (1740) in the previous season; a sense that convenience might have played a part in the decisions to recruit for Deidamia seemed evident. In particular, Gardner brought to light welcome information on Maria Monza, the young singer that Handel may have recruited while on the continent. Though it has been suggested that Handel considered Monza inexperienced, Gardner intimated that the composer might have underestimated her abilities. Indeed, arias that were later additions to Deidamia demonstrate a much wider vocal range and stronger technique, and thus suggest a singer who was far more accomplished. That Maria Monza became the focus of aria reworkings in Deidamia illustrates the well-known notion that Handel catered to and adapted his music to suit individual performers.

Carlo Caruso (Università di Siena), in his public lecture ‘Italian Literature in London at Handel’s Time’, gave much needed insight into the broader cultural exchange between England and Italy at this time (‘Italophilia’ and ‘Anglophilia’). Privileged individuals undertaking the Grand Tour brought back mementos – art, literature and music – and collectively demonstrated the extent to which England had become infatuated with Italian culture, which then permeated English staged entertainment. Literary texts in particular gained broad appeal and readership. Caruso identified the Holkham Hall Collection in Norfolk, put together during the Grand Tour of Thomas Coke (first Earl of Leicester) in 1712–1718, as a treasure trove of Italian paraphernalia.

The ensemble Muse’s Kiss (which included performers from Ensemble Grand Siècle) gave a lecture-recital, and, with it, the chance to listen to excerpts from Deidamia punctuated by performer insights into the music, narrative and characterization. The musicians (Madeline Claire de Berrié, Sarah Small, Sophia Prodanova and Kristiina Watt) programmed their music on the basis of the theme ‘Reduced Metaphor: Myth, Archetype and Depersonalisation in Handel’s Deidamia’ and explored whether characters acted as archetypes rather than individuals in their own right, referring in the process to Platonian ideals, particularly sumpachontes, or ‘fellow suffering’.

The study day culminated in a roundtable that enabled attendees to address Deidamia in a broader context and consider two short essays (printed in the programme booklet) by Reinhard Strohm and Sarah McCleave (Queen’s University Belfast). McCleave emphasized the heroic, comic and pastoral elements in Deidamia that seemed to blend together. She argued that the fixation on Deidamia as the titular character, rather than Achilles, meant that the narrative shifted to one based on emotional and personal conundrums, and away from typical Greek heroic ideals. Having connected Deidamia with the eighteenth-century genre dubbed ‘tragi-comi-pastoral-farce’, McCleave concluded that Rolli and Handel employed genre-defying structures to challenge established operatic conventions and that Deidamia provided a response to these intricacies, leading to an imaginative and ambitious work of art.

Strohm situated Deidamia as a pivotal ‘melodrama’, and one that acted as the rationale for Handel to set aside this genre and continue with English oratorio-style works. He reminded attendees that while many composers were plagued with tragedies in their final years, curtailing their creative output, Handel’s decision to cease writing opera was both deliberate and considered. Strohm also suggested that the almost total reliance on string instruments in the work appeared to be an act of ‘defiance’ and perhaps nostalgia for Handel, given his resolve to discontinue composing opera after Deidamia. These discussions gave us much to contemplate with regards to future research, and a consensus emerged that Deidamia deserved more consideration for its dramatic and musical intrigue, aspects that doubtless marked the poignant conclusion to Handel’s opera-writing career.

This short conference identified distinctive traits in Deidamia and illuminated its broader historical contexts, providing meaningful insights and critical stimulation. It also laid the foundation on which to investigate other works with similar diligence. The insights gained from this research initiative could serve to invigorate subsequent Handel scholarship on lesser-studied works. In addition to shedding light on Deidamia in these contexts, the presentations called attention to an important notion: that in scrutinizing Handel and his repertoire, assessments are continually evolving.