About the work
"Die verwandelte Daphne" forms, together with "Der beglückte Florindo," a connected double opera by Handel on a libretto by Hinrich Hinsch based on the myth of Daphne's transformation in Ovid's "Metamorphoses." Originally conceived as a single work, the "excellent music" was, according to Hinsch's preface, "somewhat too long" and was therefore split into two full-length three-act operas. Handel composed both before leaving for Italy in autumn 1706 and never witnessed their premiere, which took place in January 1708 at the Theater am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg under the probable direction of Christoph Graupner.
Plot
The nymph Daphne, promised to Florindo, is pursued by the god Phoebus after Cupid's arrow strikes him. Amid entanglements among shepherds and nymphs, Daphne finally escapes him by turning into a laurel tree, while Florindo goes on to marry the noble nymph Alfirena.
Cultural significance
None of the music survives complete; only in 1983 did the musicologist Bernd Baselt identify five instrumental movements and twelve dances without vocal parts in the Aylesford collection as remnants of the two operas, allowing a substantial orchestral suite to be reconstructed.