page_title: Admeto
section_title: Act 1
hierarchical_section_title: Admeto / Synopsis / Act 1
caption_attribution_description: English: The Death of Alceste
context_page_description: Admeto, re di Tessaglia is a three-act opera written for the Royal Academy of Music with music composed by George Frideric Handel to an Italian-language libretto prepared by Nicola Haym. The story is partly based on Euripides' Alcestis. The opera's first performance was at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 31 January 1727. The original cast included Faustina Bordoni as Alcestis and Francesca Cuzzoni as Antigona, as Admeto was the second of the five operas that Handel composed to feature specifically these two prime donne of the day.
  The opera was very successful at its first performances. However the presence of two prima donnas in the London operas had created factions of very partisan supporters of either one or the other ladies, and some performances were disrupted by hisses and loud cat calls by supporters of one of the star sopranos whenever the other one was singing, creating public scandal.
context_section_description: Scene:Greece, in legendary times.
  In a room of his palace, dominated by a statue of the god Apollo, King Admetus of Thessaly lies dying, tormented by terrible dreams. He is told by a courtier, Orindo, that his brother, Trasimede, is also in a bad way, obsessed with the portrait of a woman. The hero Hercules, on his never ending mission to perform glorious deeds to increase his fame, has come to pay a visit to his friend King Admetus. As her husband the king sleeps, his wife Alceste prays to Apollo to spare his life. The statue speaks and informs her that only if a close relative dies in his place will Admetus be permitted to continue to live. Alceste resolves to sacrifice her life for her husband.
  Living in a nearby wood, disguised as shepherds, are Princess Antigona of Troy (which was burnt to the ground by Hercules) and her tutor Merapse. King Admetus had been betrothed to marry Antigona, but jilted her in favour of Alceste. This rejection of her is the reason, Antigona believes, why he is being punished with a mortal illness. She sends Merapse to the palace, instructing him to pretend that he is her father.
  In the gardens of the palace, Alceste holds a dagger, preparing to die in her husband's place as she bids farewell to her grieving ladies-in-waiting, and then retires. Admetus, rejuvenated, enters with his friend Hercules, celebrating his recovery. Lamentations are heard from within and Admetus is horrified to see his wife's dead body. Admetus knows that Hercules once descended into the underworld and brought the hero Theseus back to the land of the living and asks him to do the same for Alceste, to which Hercules agrees.
  Merapse returns to Antigona in the woods and tells her about Alceste's death and Admetus' recovery. They are glad that now there seems to be nothing in the way of Admetus making Antigona his wife, as he had promised. A hunting party approaches, led by Trasimede, who recognises Antigona as the woman whose portrait he carries about with him at all times, never ceasing to gaze at it. She insists, however, that he is mistaken; her name is Rosilda, she tells him, and the man with her is her father, called Fidalbo. Trasimede offers her a job at the palace, working as a gardener, which Antigona is glad to accept as she will be able to be close to Admetus that way and hopes to teach him a lesson.
caption: The Death of Alceste by Pierre Peyron (1785).
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