- 1744 - Opera seria An apartment in the palace of Semele; she is sleeping, Loves and Zephyrs waiting.
Semele, waking, calls on sleep to return and restore her erotic 'visionary joys' (Oh sleep, why dost thou leave me?). Jupiter, in human form, enters and reassures her (Lay your doubts and fears aside); she responds amorously (With fond desiring). All sing of the pains and joys of love (How engaging, how endearing).
But Jupiter detects a certain discontent in Semele, which she explains as the consequence of her mortal state in a world of deities. He is disturbed at her dangerous aspirations to immortality (I must with speed amuse her). All sing in praise of Cupid (Now Love, that everlasting boy). As a distraction for Semele, Jupiter dispatches his winged Zephyrs to fetch Ino, her sister, from Thebes and bring her as a companion. He then turns the scene into Arcadia and celebrates rural delights (Where'er you walk).
Ino arrives and describes to Semele her unusual journey and the sweet music she heard (But hark! The heav'nly sphere turns round); the sisters, then everyone, praise the joys of music (Bless the glad earth with heav'nly lays!).