The Aphrodisiacs In "The Sima" "Why Is It Difficult For Me To Fall Asleep?" "Deductive Research

"O sleep, why dost thou leave me?" is originally from Act2, Semele, a1743operawritten by George Frideric Handel(1685-1759), one of the greatest composers duringBaroque Era. From "Semele" and "O sleep", it can be told that Handel was trying to meetcomplicated demands from audience that advocated both classic and fashion simultaneously,and he also worked hard on re-creating stories from Bible, Greek and Roman mythologies tocater to trend and public taste. During the re-creation process, Handel seized the most popularmotifs such as love, revenge and death and emphasized the love stories among Gods andmortals to satisfy plain desire of ordinary people to eliminate hierarchy. In order to humorand entertain his audience, Handel emphasized the deformation scene of Jupiter and Juno andsensual scenes in "Semele" and also let the main character to vent yearnings and lusts in "Osleep". This paper aims to create comprehensive understandings of "Semele" and "O sleep"through in-depth analysis of background, characteristics, creative thinking, singingtechniques, emotional expressions and aesthetic value of the composition.The introduction part makes brief statement that introduces the motivation, orientationsand goals of this research. The first chapter introduces the background of "Semele", includingbrief biography of Handel and the background of the composition. The second and thirdchapters are main content of the paper. The second chapter summarizes the composingapproaches and characteristics by analyzing music forms, tonal harmonies, style and creativethinking of the opera. The third chapter is the focus of the paper that combines andsummarizes essentials of emotional expressions, singing techniques through author’s ownhands-on experiences.