page_title: Tolomeo
section_title: Act 3
hierarchical_section_title: Tolomeo / Synopsis / Act 3
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of soprano Susannah Maria Cibber. See Entry on her in Hercules, the file name is wrong; this is NOT Francesca Cuzzoni. The file name now is correct. Date: 2016-03-29
context_page_description: Tolomeo, re d'Egitto is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Carlo Sigismondo Capece's Tolomeo et Alessandro.
  It was Handel's 13th and last opera for the Royal Academy of Music and was also the last of the operas he composed for the triumvirate of internationally renowned singers, the castrato Senesino and the sopranos Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni.
  The story of the opera is a fictionalisation of some events in the life of Ptolemy IX Lathyros, king of Egypt.
  An aria from the opera, Non lo dirò col labbro, was adapted by Arthur Somervell as the popular English-language classic "Silent Worship" in 1928.
context_section_description: Alessandro has a letter positing the death of Cleopatra. He says she has paid the price for her cruelty. Somehow Araspe interprets Alessandro saying he wants to go home to Egypt with Tolomeo as meaning he wants his brother slain, but wants someone else to do it. Araspe, of course, thinks himself the very man for the job and delights in avenging the jealousy he feels.
  Elisa forces Seleuce to cede Tolomeo to her, saying he'll die otherwise. Tolomeo rejects Elisa once more. She says if he is so brave and intent on rejecting her, then he should drink some poison. This he does. He describes the effect the poison is having, and then, apparently, dies. Alessandro comes to the desperate Seleuce in the remotest part of the wood and promises to reunite her with Tolomeo. Araspe triumphanly reveals the body of Tolomeo to Alessandro. He is sure that Seleuce is his but Elisa reveals the potion was actually a sleeping draught and she will torture Seleuce and put her to death. At this point Tolomeo wakes up and Alessandro presents Seleuce to him. Husband and wife are reunited and Alessandro declares Tolomeo as Egypt's rightful ruler. The opera ends with a joyous quartet expounding that when suffering turns into joy, all can be forgiven.
caption: Francesca Cuzzoni, who created the role of Seleuce
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