Apollo E Dafne (Handel)

Apollo E Dafne (Handel)

Apollo e Dafne (Apollo and Daphne, HWV 122) is a secular cantata composed by George Frideric Handel in 1709–10. Handel began the work in Venice in 1709, but completed it in Hanover after arriving in 1710 to take up his appointment as Kapellmeister to the Elector, the later King George I of Great Britain. The work is one of Handel's most ambitious cantatas, and is indicative of the brilliant operatic career to follow in the next 30 years of his life.

The work's original overture has not survived and therefore another of the composer's instrumental works is sometimes substituted as an introduction. The cantata's instrumentation is bright as Handel adds a flute, a pair of oboes and a bassoon to the usual strings.

The work takes just over 40 minutes to perform.