Partenope
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Partenope is an opera by George Frideric Handel composed in 1730. It was Handel's first comic opera which broke away from the Opera Seria tradition and was rejected by the Royal Academy of Music because of its frivolous nature with relatively few extended arias and more recitative.
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Partenope (or Parthenope to conform to original Greek spelling) In Greek myth, is the youngest of three sirens who tried to enchant Odysseus (Ulysses) from the rocks off the island of Capri. Odysseus, having been tied to the mast of his ship by his crew, managed to resist the song of the sirens. Partenope unable to live with the rejection of love by Odysseus, drowned herself and her body was washed up upon the shore of an area in Naples which takes this name. Hence, the Greeks named their 'old city' Partenopeia; this site was left in favour of a nearby area which came to be known as Neapolis, or "new city"--Naples, as it known today.
