Serse
Encyclopedia
Serse is an opera seria
in three acts by George Frideric Handel
. It was first performed in London
on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto
was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name
by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694. Stampiglia's libretto was itself based on one
by Nicolò Minato
that was set by Francesco Cavalli
in 1654. The opera is set in Persia in 480 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia
, though there is little in either the libretto or music that is relevant to that setting. Xerxes, originally sung by a castrato
, is now generally performed by a mezzo-soprano
, contralto
or countertenor
. Although the English title Xerxes is widely used, the original Italian title was Serse.
The opening aria, "Ombra mai fu
", sung by Xerxes to a tree (Platanus orientalis
), is set to one of Handel's best-known melodies, and is often played in an orchestral arrangement, known as Handel's "largo" (despite being marked "larghetto" in the score).
, was premiered on 3 January 1738. By this time, Handel had already begun work on Serse. The first act was composed between 26 December 1737 and 9 January 1738, the second was ready by 25 January, the third by 6 February, and Handel put the finishing touches to the score on 14 February. Serse was first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket on 15 April 1738.
The first production was a complete failure. The audience may have been confused by the innovative nature of the work. Unlike his other operas for London, Handel included comic (buffo
) elements in Serse. Although this had been typical for 17th-century Venetian works such as Cavalli's original setting of the libretto, by the 1730s an opera seria was expected to be wholly serious, with no mixing of the genres of tragedy and comedy or high and low class characters. The musicologist Charles Burney
later took Serse to task for violating decorum in this way, writing: "I have not been able to discover the author of the words of this drama: but it is one of the worst Handel ever set to Music: for besides feeble writing, there is a mixture of tragic-comedy and buffoonery in it, which Apostolo Zeno
and Metastasio
had banished from serious opera." Another unusual aspect of Serse is the number of short, one-movement aria
s, when a typical opera seria of Handel's time was almost wholly made up of long, three-movement da capo aria
s. This feature particularly struck the Earl of Shaftesbury
, who attended the premiere and admired the opera. He noted "the airs too, for brevity's sake, as the opera would otherwise be too long [,] fall without any recitativ'
intervening from one into another[,] that tis difficult to understand till it comes by frequent hearing to be well known. My own judgment is that it is a capital opera notwithstanding tis called a ballad one."
on 5 July 1924 in a version by Oscar Hagen. By 1926 this version had been staged at least 90 times in 15 German cities. Serses success has continued. According to Winton Dean
, Serse is Handel's most popular opera with modern audiences after Giulio Cesare
. The very features which 18th-century listeners found so disconcerting - the shortness of the arias and the admixture of comedy - may account for its appeal to the 20th and the 21st centuries.
Serse was produced for the stage at the La Scala Theater in Milan, Italy in January 1962. The production was conducted by Piero Bellugi
, and an all-star cast featuring Mirella Freni
, Rolando Panerai
, Fiorenza Cossotto
, Irene Companez, Leonardo Monreale, Franco Calabrese
, and Luigi Alva
in the title role. Because Handel operas were still in a relatively early stage of their return to the stage, musicians had not yet thought to ornament the da capo sections (repetition of the A section) of the arias and thus, they were not ornamented. There is a live recording from January 19, 1962 available on the Opera D'oro label.
A complete recording was made in 1979. A particularly highly acclaimed production, sung in English, was staged by the English National Opera
in 1985, to mark the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth. Conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, it was directed by Nicholas Hytner
, who also translated the libretto, and starred Ann Murray
in the title role, with Valerie Masterson
as Romilda, Christopher Robson as Arsamene, and Lesley Garrett
as Atalanta.
The opera was produced for the stage in November 2010 at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), directed by Cleveland Opera's founder and artistic director David Bamberger and conducted by Harry Davidson. The production received favorable reviews from The Plain Dealer and ClassicalCleveland.com.
Xerxes banishes Arsamene, who sends a note to Romilda through his servant Elviro, disguised as a flower vendor, pledging his eternal fidelity; he gives it to Atalanta to pass on, and she promptly hatches a plot. She tells Elviro that Romilda has given up on Arsamene and decided to be queen, and shows the note to Xerxes, claiming that it was addressed to herself. Xerxes determines to marry Arsamene off to Atalanta and shows the note to Romilda, who nevertheless decides to stay true to the man she loves.
The scene changes to the bridge over the Hellespont. Xerxes tells Ariodate that his daughter Romilda must wed, by the king's command, a member of Xerxes' family, equal in blood to himself. Xerxes pursues Romilda until Amastre-in-disguise starts a fight as a distraction. Romilda persuades Xerxes to let her deal with the problem, and is pleased and gratified to learn that Amastre started it to rescue her. Arsamene and Romilda meet again and fight until Elviro drags Atalanta on to explain matters, and she declares that she'll find someone else. Elviro remarks on a storm threatening the bridge, then sings a ditty to Bacchus. Romilda and Arsamene are joyfully reunited, although she then has to hide him while his brother presses his suit. Romilda tells Xerxes that he must have her father's consent before she can obey the king's command; Arsamene is displeased.
Xerxes reiterates to Ariodate that Romilda must wed a member of Xerxes' family, equal in blood to himself, who will appear at his home; Ariodate mistakenly thinks he is referring to his brother Arsamene rather than himself, and happily goes home to prepare the wedding. Xerxes then tells Romilda that she will marry him. Romilda reveals that Arsamene has kissed her; Xerxes declares that he will kill his own brother, and Romilda agrees to marry Xerxes to spare Arsamene's life.
Arsamene and Romilda arrive at Ariodate's place, where he happily announces that they are to marry by King Xerxes' command. Disbelieving, they joyfully do so. After Arsamene and Romilda wed, Xerxes arrives, ready for his wedding and not at all happy to learn that his vassal has just married his bride off to his brother. When Amastre-in-disguise appears, Xerxes is calling out for someone to avenge him and wants to know what Amastre-in-disguise has been doing popping in and out of the entire opera; Amastre asks whether he wants her to kill the traitor, the one who, having been so dearly loved, went off chasing another. When he demands that she do so, she reveals herself to Xerxes, who becomes ashamed of his faithlessness and tells her to go ahead and kill him. Amastre, still in love with him, refuses, and Xerxes offers her his queen's crown once more.
Opera seria
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
in three acts by George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
. It was first performed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name
Xerse (Bononcini)
Xerse is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Battista Bononcini. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The libretto was written by Silvio Stampiglia after that by Nicolò Minato which had been used for the 1654 opera of the same name by Francesco Cavalli...
by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694. Stampiglia's libretto was itself based on one
Xerse
Xerse is an opera by Francesco Cavalli - specifically, a dramma per musica about Xerxes I. The libretto was written by Nicolò Minato, and was later set by both Giovanni Battista Bononcini and George Frideric Handel. Minato's plot outline is loosely based on Book 7 of Herodotus's Histories...
by Nicolò Minato
Nicolò Minato
Count Nicolò Minato was an Italian poet, librettist and impresario. His career can be divided into two parts: the years he spent at Venice, from 1650 to 1669, and the years at Vienna, from 1669 until his death....
that was set by Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron Federico Cavalli, a Venetian nobleman.-Life:Cavalli was born at Crema, Lombardy...
in 1654. The opera is set in Persia in 480 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia
Xerxes I of Persia
Xerxes I of Persia , Ḫšayāršā, ), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire.-Youth and rise to power:...
, though there is little in either the libretto or music that is relevant to that setting. Xerxes, originally sung by a castrato
Castrato
A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's...
, is now generally performed by a mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
, contralto
Contralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
or countertenor
Countertenor
A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...
. Although the English title Xerxes is widely used, the original Italian title was Serse.
The opening aria, "Ombra mai fu
Ombra mai fu
"Ombra mai fu" is the opening aria from the 1738 opera Serse by George Frideric Handel.-Context:The opera was a commercial failure, lasting only five performances in London after its premiere. In the 19th century, however, the aria was rediscovered and became one of Handel's best-known pieces...
", sung by Xerxes to a tree (Platanus orientalis
Platanus orientalis
Platanus orientalis, or the Oriental plane, is a large, deciduous tree of the Platanaceae family, known for its longevity and spreading crown. The species name derives from its historical distribution eastward from the Balkans, where it was recognized in ancient Greek history and literature....
), is set to one of Handel's best-known melodies, and is often played in an orchestral arrangement, known as Handel's "largo" (despite being marked "larghetto" in the score).
Composition history
In late 1737 the King's Theatre, London commissioned Handel to write two new operas. The first, FaramondoFaramondo
Faramondo is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text adapted from Apostolo Zeno's Faramondo.-Performance history:...
, was premiered on 3 January 1738. By this time, Handel had already begun work on Serse. The first act was composed between 26 December 1737 and 9 January 1738, the second was ready by 25 January, the third by 6 February, and Handel put the finishing touches to the score on 14 February. Serse was first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket on 15 April 1738.
The first production was a complete failure. The audience may have been confused by the innovative nature of the work. Unlike his other operas for London, Handel included comic (buffo
Opera buffa
Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
) elements in Serse. Although this had been typical for 17th-century Venetian works such as Cavalli's original setting of the libretto, by the 1730s an opera seria was expected to be wholly serious, with no mixing of the genres of tragedy and comedy or high and low class characters. The musicologist Charles Burney
Charles Burney
Charles Burney FRS was an English music historian and father of authors Frances Burney and Sarah Burney.-Life and career:...
later took Serse to task for violating decorum in this way, writing: "I have not been able to discover the author of the words of this drama: but it is one of the worst Handel ever set to Music: for besides feeble writing, there is a mixture of tragic-comedy and buffoonery in it, which Apostolo Zeno
Apostolo Zeno
Apostolo Zeno was a Venetian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters.-Early life:Apostolo Zeno was born of Cretan Greek descent in Venice in 1669...
and Metastasio
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
had banished from serious opera." Another unusual aspect of Serse is the number of short, one-movement aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
s, when a typical opera seria of Handel's time was almost wholly made up of long, three-movement da capo aria
Da capo aria
The da capo aria is a musical form, which was prevalent in the Baroque era. It is sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra. The da capo aria is very common in the musical genres of opera and oratorio...
s. This feature particularly struck the Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 4th Earl of Shaftesbury , 4th Earl of Shaftesbury.The 4th Earl served as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1734 until his death.-Family Legacy:...
, who attended the premiere and admired the opera. He noted "the airs too, for brevity's sake, as the opera would otherwise be too long [,] fall without any recitativ'
Recitative
Recitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
intervening from one into another[,] that tis difficult to understand till it comes by frequent hearing to be well known. My own judgment is that it is a capital opera notwithstanding tis called a ballad one."
Performance history
Serse disappeared from the stage for almost two hundred years. It enjoyed its first modern revival in GöttingenGöttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
on 5 July 1924 in a version by Oscar Hagen. By 1926 this version had been staged at least 90 times in 15 German cities. Serses success has continued. According to Winton Dean
Winton Dean
Winton Dean is an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research concerning the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of Handel, as detailed in his book Handel’s Dramatic Oratorios and Masques .Dean was born in Birkenhead...
, Serse is Handel's most popular opera with modern audiences after Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
. The very features which 18th-century listeners found so disconcerting - the shortness of the arias and the admixture of comedy - may account for its appeal to the 20th and the 21st centuries.
Serse was produced for the stage at the La Scala Theater in Milan, Italy in January 1962. The production was conducted by Piero Bellugi
Piero Bellugi
Piero Bellugi is an Italian conductor from Florence. He received a diploma in violin and viola from the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, and also studied composition there with Luigi Dallapiccola. He also studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and at the Universität...
, and an all-star cast featuring Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni
Mirella Freni, birth name Mirella Fregni, is an Italian opera soprano whose repertoire includes Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Tchaikovsky...
, Rolando Panerai
Rolando Panerai
Rolando Panerai Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, he enjoyed a long and distinguished career in both comic and dramatic roles.Rolando Panerai was born in Campi Bisenzio, near Florence, Italy....
, Fiorenza Cossotto
Fiorenza Cossotto
Fiorenza Cossotto is an Italian mezzo soprano. She is considered by many to be one of the great mezzo-sopranos of the 20th century.-Life and career:...
, Irene Companez, Leonardo Monreale, Franco Calabrese
Franco Calabrese
Franco Calabrese was an Italian bass singer....
, and Luigi Alva
Luigi Alva
Luis Ernesto Alva y Talledo, better known as Luigi Alva is a Peruvian operatic tenor, active in the third quarter of the 20th century. He was admired for his purity of tone, the elegance of his phrasing and the clarity of his diction...
in the title role. Because Handel operas were still in a relatively early stage of their return to the stage, musicians had not yet thought to ornament the da capo sections (repetition of the A section) of the arias and thus, they were not ornamented. There is a live recording from January 19, 1962 available on the Opera D'oro label.
A complete recording was made in 1979. A particularly highly acclaimed production, sung in English, was staged by the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
in 1985, to mark the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth. Conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, it was directed by Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
, who also translated the libretto, and starred Ann Murray
Ann Murray
Ann Murray DBE is an Irish mezzo-soprano. She was born on 27 August 1949, in Dublin. She studied with Frederic Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music and made her stage debut as Alcestis in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Alceste in 1974...
in the title role, with Valerie Masterson
Valerie Masterson
Margaret Valerie Masterson , is a retired English opera singer, a lecturer and Vice-President of British Youth Opera. After study in Italy, she began to sing opera in Europe...
as Romilda, Christopher Robson as Arsamene, and Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett CBE is an English musician, broadcaster and media personality.- Early life :Garrett was born in the town of Thorne near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, into a musical family. She attended Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals. As she grew up she...
as Atalanta.
The opera was produced for the stage in November 2010 at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), directed by Cleveland Opera's founder and artistic director David Bamberger and conducted by Harry Davidson. The production received favorable reviews from The Plain Dealer and ClassicalCleveland.com.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 15 April 1738 (Conductor: - ) |
|---|---|---|
| Serse | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... castrato Castrato A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's... , now done by a mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... , contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... or countertenor Countertenor A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble... |
Gaetano Majorano (Caffarelli) |
| Arsamene | soprano, actually mezzo, described by Handel as a "dark soprano" | Maria Antonia Marchesini (La Lucchesina) |
| Amastre | contralto Contralto Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above... |
Antonia Merighi Antonia Merighi Antonia Margherita Merighi was an Italian contralto active between 1711 and 1744 and particularly known today for her performances in operas by George Frideric Handel.-Biography:... |
| Romilda | soprano | Elisabeth Duparc Elisabeth Duparc Elisabeth Duparc or Du Parc, nicknamed "La Francesina", was a French soprano notable for appearing in several premieres and performances of the oratorios and operas of Handel - she played the title role, for example, in the premiere of Semele.After training in Italy she sang in Florence then... (La Francesina) |
| Atalanta | soprano | Margherita Chimenti (La Droghierina) |
| Ariodate | bass | Antonio Montagnana Antonio Montagnana Antonio Montagnana was an Italian bass of the 18th-century who is best remembered for his association with the composer George Frideric Handel, whose operas Montagnana sang in.... |
| Elviro | bass | Antonio Lottini |
Synopsis
King Xerxes, looking up from contemplation of his beloved plane tree, sees Romilda, the daughter of his vassal Ariodate, and makes up his mind to marry her. However Romilda and Xerxes' brother, Arsamene, love each other, while Romilda's sister, Atalanta, is also determined to make Arsamene hers. Amastre, Xerxes' fiancée, forsaken by him for Romilda, disguises herself as a man and observes Xerxes.Xerxes banishes Arsamene, who sends a note to Romilda through his servant Elviro, disguised as a flower vendor, pledging his eternal fidelity; he gives it to Atalanta to pass on, and she promptly hatches a plot. She tells Elviro that Romilda has given up on Arsamene and decided to be queen, and shows the note to Xerxes, claiming that it was addressed to herself. Xerxes determines to marry Arsamene off to Atalanta and shows the note to Romilda, who nevertheless decides to stay true to the man she loves.
The scene changes to the bridge over the Hellespont. Xerxes tells Ariodate that his daughter Romilda must wed, by the king's command, a member of Xerxes' family, equal in blood to himself. Xerxes pursues Romilda until Amastre-in-disguise starts a fight as a distraction. Romilda persuades Xerxes to let her deal with the problem, and is pleased and gratified to learn that Amastre started it to rescue her. Arsamene and Romilda meet again and fight until Elviro drags Atalanta on to explain matters, and she declares that she'll find someone else. Elviro remarks on a storm threatening the bridge, then sings a ditty to Bacchus. Romilda and Arsamene are joyfully reunited, although she then has to hide him while his brother presses his suit. Romilda tells Xerxes that he must have her father's consent before she can obey the king's command; Arsamene is displeased.
Xerxes reiterates to Ariodate that Romilda must wed a member of Xerxes' family, equal in blood to himself, who will appear at his home; Ariodate mistakenly thinks he is referring to his brother Arsamene rather than himself, and happily goes home to prepare the wedding. Xerxes then tells Romilda that she will marry him. Romilda reveals that Arsamene has kissed her; Xerxes declares that he will kill his own brother, and Romilda agrees to marry Xerxes to spare Arsamene's life.
Arsamene and Romilda arrive at Ariodate's place, where he happily announces that they are to marry by King Xerxes' command. Disbelieving, they joyfully do so. After Arsamene and Romilda wed, Xerxes arrives, ready for his wedding and not at all happy to learn that his vassal has just married his bride off to his brother. When Amastre-in-disguise appears, Xerxes is calling out for someone to avenge him and wants to know what Amastre-in-disguise has been doing popping in and out of the entire opera; Amastre asks whether he wants her to kill the traitor, the one who, having been so dearly loved, went off chasing another. When he demands that she do so, she reveals herself to Xerxes, who becomes ashamed of his faithlessness and tells her to go ahead and kill him. Amastre, still in love with him, refuses, and Xerxes offers her his queen's crown once more.
Media
Recordings
- A DVD recording of the 1985 stage production was made in 1995, when a revival of this production was staged with the same conductor and cast, and issued by Arthaus Musik.
- EMI recording: in 2003 in Italian with Anne Sofie von Otter and Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz with William ChristieWilliam Christie (musician)William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
conducting the "Les Arts Florissants". This was issued by Virgin Veritas in 2004. (Texts & translations at emiclassics.com)
- BMG recording: Recorded in 1998, performed by Jennifer Smith, Lisa Milne, Susan Bickley, Brian Asawa, David Thomas, et al. The recording was conducted by Nicholas McGegan accompanied by The Hanover Band and Chorus (75605 51312 2)