Handel, Georg Frideric: Hercules

Hercules by Georg Frideric Handel
Cast: John Tomlinson, Sarah Walker, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Jennifer Smith, Catherine Denley & Peter Savidge with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.
Libretto by Thomas Broughton
Label: Archiv Produktion
Catalogue number: 2742 004
Country of Issue: Germany
Date: 1983
Stereo
Digital
Format: LP Boxed Set (3 discs plus booklet)
Label design:  Stadnard Archiv  silver
Discs: Mint, unmarked
Outer box: Mint
Inner sleeves: original, polylined, as new
Booklet: full size 18pp, perfect. Notes and Libretto in German, English and French

This item appears as new throughout and I dont see any evidence of it ever having been played.  Acquired by us in 2007 as part of a large collection.  

The Musical Drama Hercules was first performed at the King;s Theatre, London on 5 January 1745.   Handel had given up writing opera four years earlier  at the age of 56,  and instead concentrated on producing oratorios; however neither Hercules nor Semele (1744) is a true oratorio,  more an opera without acting or staging. It is renowned among Handel's works for its fine libreetto and its "Profound insight into character" (Winton Dean).

This is one of the pioneering 'authentic instrument' recordings made by Gardiner and one of the best.