page_title: Theodora (Handel)
section_title: Act 3
hierarchical_section_title: Theodora (Handel) / Synopsis / Act 3
caption_attribution_description: English: Giulia Frasi, soprano
context_page_description: Theodora is a dramatic oratorio in three acts by George Frideric Handel, set to an English libretto by Thomas Morell. The oratorio concerns the Christian martyr Theodora and her Christian-converted Roman lover, Didymus. It had its first performance at Covent Garden Theatre on 16 March 1750.
  Not popular with audiences in Handel's day, Theodora is now recognised as a masterpiece and is sometimes fully staged as an opera.
context_section_description: As the third part opens the Christians celebrate Theodora's safe return. However she feels guilty that she endangered Didymus's life in order to save her own. A messenger informs them Didymus has been captured and that Valens has changed Theodora's punishment to death. Theodora goes to offer herself in Didymus' place, despite the protests of her faithful friend Irene. As Valens sentences Didymus to be executed, Theodora enters demanding that she die and Didymus be saved. Both Didymus and Theodora argue that they should die in place of the other. Septimius is moved by this, and pleads for clemency. Valens, however, condemns both Didymus and Theodora to death and they sing a duet to their immortality.
caption: Giulia Frasi, soprano, creator of the role of Theodora
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