Classical Composer: | Handel, George Frideric |
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Lyricist: | Minato, Nicolò |
Work: | Serse (Xerxes), HWV 40* |
Year Composed: | 1738 |
Instrumentation: | 0.2rec.201/2100/str/cont |
Publishers: |
Edition Kunzelmann Deutsche Handelgesellschaft Edwin F. Kalmus Bärenreiter Verlag |
Duration: | 02:39:00 |
Period: | Baroque (1600-1750) |
Work Category: | Opera |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
Serse ('Xerxes'), the king of Persia, sings this aria to his favorite plane tree, thanking the plant for giving him shade.
Serse's first aria, although memorably beautiful, sets up the king as a partially comical figure, and prepares the way for the rest of Handel's witty and sly opera.
Handel originally wrote this for a castrato. Nowadays, it is most often performed at the same high pitch by a countertenor or mezzo-soprano. But in the 1920s, when Handel's operas were first rediscovered, leading roles like this were usually given to tenors and basses.
Writer: Warwick Thompson
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