About the work
Imeneo is an opera seria in two parts by George Frideric Handel, its libretto derived from Silvio Stampiglia's text for a Neapolitan wedding celebration of 1723. Handel began composing it in 1738 but did not complete the score until 1740; it premiered on 22 November 1740 at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.
Plot
Pirates abduct Rosmene and her companion Clomiri; Imeneo rescues them and demands Rosmene's hand in return. Torn between her lover Tirinto, Clomiri's father Argenio and Imeneo, Rosmene is driven near madness and even consults a judge of the underworld before finally choosing Imeneo.
Cultural significance
The work met with only lukewarm reception and ran for just three performances; the connoisseur Charles Jennens called it "the worst of all Handel's compositions", though he conceded that half the songs were good. With its plot reduced to a single romantic dilemma, Imeneo marks a deliberately lighter, comic tone in Handel's late work.