Theseus – the Greek hero who escaped from the labyrinth with the help of Ariadne’s thread – is, in Handel’s opera, Teseo, who also finds himself in an equally difficult predicament. There is speculation about his fate from the word go – he has joined the Athenians and gone to war. While he is absent his father, King Egeo, makes a play for his beloved Agilea. Egeo, not realising that the returning warrior is his son, suspects him of planning to usurp his throne. Medea, Egeo’s disappointed fiancée, hoping to find new love with Teseo, is deeply hurt and bent on revenge when he confides his longings for Agilea to her: she has Agilea abducted by demons and gives Egeo a beaker of poison intended for Teseo… That it ends happily, after five acts, is a miracle.
    Teseo was Handel’s third opera for London (preceded by Rinaldo and Il Pastor fido). Based on a tragédie lyrique written by Philippe Quinault for Jean Baptiste Lully in 1675, it is the first collaboration between Handel and the musician and poet Nicola Francesco Haym to produce a French and Italian opera for England. The historical subject matter and passionate scenes held audiences in its thrall.