Handel’s “Alceste” – a Musical Experiment That Never Reached the Stage

Which work by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) reads more like a detective story than a conventional stage composition? It’s “Alceste,” a piece set to a libretto by Tobias Smollett, composed as incidental music for a stage play. The only work of its kind in Handel’s oeuvre, “Alceste” was created at remarkable speed – between December 27, 1749, and January 8, 1750 – when Handel was nearly 65 years old. The story of King Admetus, who is destined to die but is granted a reprieve if someone else sacrifices their life for him, was never performed. Instead, the score was dismantled and “hidden” by Handel within his other works. To this day, no one knows exactly why the project was suddenly abandoned. The premiere was planned for London’s Covent Garden in 1750 and was to be a lavish production, with an extensive cast, a large orchestra, and elaborate stage designs. Yet the entire enterprise was cancelled at the last minute.

From there, the tale takes on the intrigue of a literary thriller. Tobias Smollett — the author of the adaptation of Euripides’ tragedy of the same name – wrote a libretto that has almost completely vanished. Some texts are also suspected to have been written by Thomas Morell. After the cancellation, Handel did not attempt to salvage the project; instead, he unceremoniously recycled the music, reusing its fragments in his later compositions. What remains of the original “Alceste” is therefore a ghost score – a collection of vocal and instrumental numbers that dazzle individually, yet together resemble scattered pieces of a puzzle.

What makes “Alceste” so intriguing today is precisely this air of mystery. It’s like finding a stack of notes in an attic – fragments of a novel the author never finished. The music shimmers with Handel’s characteristic drama and brilliance, while prompting questions: Why was the project abandoned? Who truly wrote the texts? And what might the play itself have looked like?