Serse (Xerxes)
Opera in three acts
Libretto adapted from one by Silvio Stampiglia
First performance: The King's Theatre, London; April 15, 1738
Cast, in order of appearance:
Serse (Xerxes), king of Persia (mezzo-soprano)
Arsamene, brother of Xerxes, lover of Romilda (alto)
Elviro, servant of Arsamene( baritone)
Romilda, daughter of Ariodate (soprano)
Atalanta, sister of Romilda (soprano)
Amastre, princess betrothed to Serse (alto)
Ariodate, prince, captain of the army, father of Romilda and Atalanta (bass)
Program Notes by Martin Pearlman
Handel's opera scores tell us a good deal about the way in which he worked. In them, he would note the date on which he began composing an opera and the dates on which he finished sketching each of the acts. Then, once all the acts were sketched, he would go back and fill in the orchestration and other details, adding the date when the opera was "completely finished" ("völlig geendiget"). Thus we know that he completed his opera Faramondo on Christmas Eve of 1737 and then rested for just one day over the holiday before beginning work on Serse on December 26. From that point, it took him about two weeks to sketch each of the three acts, and he had the entire opera completely finished by February 14, 1738.
As fast as this may seem for writing an opera, it was on the slow side for Handel. He appears to have taken extraordinary care in shaping this work. The autograph is full of corrections, reworkings and cuts, many of them aimed at compressing the drama and moving it forward. There being no author's name on the libretto, Handel himself may well have adapted it for his own use, adjusting it as needed while composing the music.
The original version of the libretto had been written nearly a century earlier for Cavalli's opera Xerse. Then in 1694, it was adapted by Silvio Stampiglia for a setting by Bononcini. Handel based his libretto on the one used by Bononcini, although he shortened it considerably. He omitted minor characters, removed a few complicated subplots, cut a number of arias, and reduced some of the other arias to brief ariosos -- all of this in order to tighten the drama, even if it meant that a character's motivation might be less fully explained. It is fascinating to see that Handel sometimes borrowed musical ideas from Bononcini's settings of particular arias. While he was well known for borrowing from other composers (and from his own music), he did not ordinarily borrow from someone else's setting of the very text that he was working on. It makes one wonder whether he had Bononcini's opera in front of him, as he adapted both the libretto and occasional musical ideas to his own purposes.
The story of the opera takes place in the fifth century B. C. E. and is loosely based on incidents recounted by the Greek historian Herodotus. The Persian king Xerxes (the biblical Ahasuerus) is in the midst of his war against the Greeks, while at home, he becomes infatuated with the wife of his brother Arsamenes, thereby enraging his own wife Amestris with his infidelity. The full story, according to Herodotus, is much uglier and bloodier than the one that Handel tells, but the main characters are historical. The libretto also incorporates a few details from the military campaign against the Greeks: the bridge across the Hellespont, which the Persians constructed of boats tied together, was indeed initially destroyed by winds; and the opera opens with Xerxes admiring a majestic plane tree, which, it is said, he came across on his campaign and so admired that he decorated it with gold and wrote an ode to it.
Serse received its premiere on April 15, 1738 at the King's Theatre in London. The title role was sung by the alto castrato Caffarelli, but the role of Arsamene, Serse's brother, was written for a woman, Maria Marchesini. Initially, the opera was not a great success. It ran for only five performances and then was not heard again until the twentieth century. One account from the time tells us that the performances of both the cast and the orchestra were weak, but some of the problems lay elsewhere. Being one of Handel's last operas, Serse was written at a time when the British love affair with Italian opera was waning, and Handel was beginning to turn toward writing oratorios in English. Perhaps it was this change of style that led him to write far fewer standard da capo arias and employ more flexible, fluid forms in Serse than was typical of Italian operas of the time. Some of his contemporaries found this confusing. One listener wrote that, although he admired the opera, the music ran so fluidly together, sometimes without recitatives separating the arias, that "tis difficult to understand till it comes by frequent hearing to be well known."
Today Serse is one of Handel's most popular operas and has come to be considered one of his finest. The dramatic fluidity that surprised his own audience now seems refreshing and effective, and the music is unquestionably of the highest level. Serse's brief aria Ombra mai fu, which opens the opera has become one of the most famous moments in all of Handel. Popularly known as "Handel's Largo," it has been excerpted in recordings all the way back to Caruso and beyond (including John Philip Sousa's band arrangement of 1902). But there is other equally fine music throughout the opera, and the delineation of the various characters -- including the rare (for Handel) buffo character of Elviro -- shows the composer at one of his creative peaks. It is a surge of creative energy that could not be suppressed by the failure of this great opera and that would continue some months later, as he began work on his oratorio Saul.
Vocal Ornamentation by Martin Pearlman
Click on the aria titles below to download or view a PDF of the vocal ornamentation by Martin Pearlman. The arias are organized by opera character.
Aria ornamentation is also available for Handel’s Agrippina, Alcina, Amadigi di Gaula, Ariodante, Giulio Cesare, Partenope, and Semele.
Orchestration Chart
This chart gives an overview of the work, showing which soloists and instruments are in each movement. It has also been useful in planning rehearsals, since one can see at a glance all the music that a particular musician plays. Red X's indicate major solo moments for a singer. An X in parentheses indicates that the use of that instrument is ad libitum.
This is a preview of the beginning of the chart. You can download or view a PDF of the whole chart here.
© Boston Baroque 2020
Boston Baroque Performances
Serse
October 24 & 25, 2008
NEC’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA
Martin Pearlman, conductor
Paul Peers, stage director
Soloists:
Michael Maniaci - Serse
Ava Pine - Romilda
Amanda Forsythe - Atalanta
Marie Lenormand - Arsamenes
Leah Wool - Amastre
Mark Schnaible - Ariodate
Michael Scarcelle - Elviro