Handel: Serse

Handel’s tragicomic opera Serse was a failure at the box office when it was first staged in 1738 but thanks to a spate of modern productions and recordings, it has since become one of the composer’s most popular works. Following a run of concert performances of Serse in May 2022, conductor Harry Bicket took his fine cast into the studio, along with The English Concert. The result is a recording that catches the fizz of a live show while adding high polish to Handel’s inspired music. This is arguably the finest Serse on record. Serse recalls tales from the reign of Persian king Xerxes, including his ill-fated efforts to invade Greece and love for a plane tree. Handel immortalized the latter in “Ombra mai fu,” the opera’s greatest hit, which Emily D’Angelo sings with unalloyed tenderness. She’s equally engaging when Xerxes turns nasty as his plans to marry Romilda, the daughter of one of his vassals, are derailed by Amastre, the noble woman to whom he is betrothed, and by his brother Arsamene. Handel propels the plot with a succession of punchy recitatives, arias, and ensemble numbers. “It can be hard to get Handel’s first acts to really crackle,” Harry Bicket tells Apple Music Classical. “With Serse, he almost blows it all at the beginning with ‘Ombra mai fu’! The action moves at a faster rate than nearly anything else he wrote.” D’Angelo portrays the king as a fully human, deeply flawed character. “Xerxes, which Handel wrote for the star castrato Caffarelli, is a bit of a caricature,” observes Bicket. “But he’s someone who’s never had to ask for anything in his life; everything’s handed to him on a plate. He expects that if he wants somebody, then he’s going to have them. I guess we’ve all known or seen people like that.” The English Concert’s recording employs five women, each distinctive in sound and personality, playing male and female roles. “You can’t mistake one for another,” says Bicket. He points to Serse’s poignant aria “Più che penso,” ravishingly sung by D’Angelo and Lucy Crowe’s scene-stealing delivery of Romilda’s aria “Se l’idol mio.” And then there’s Mary Bevan, on top form as Romilda’s sister in “Un cenno leggiadretto,” a triumphant account of Amastre’s “Saprà delle mie offese” from Daniela Mack, and Paula Murrihy’s haunting delivery of Arsamene’s “Non so se sia la speme.” Bicket’s Serse gains, too, from William Dazeley’s cameo as Elviro and sumptuous singing from Neal Davies in Ariodate’s two arias. Italian singers almost entirely populated Handel’s original cast. Harry Bicket was able to pick from the best of today’s Handelians, with Canada, Ireland, England, Wales, and Argentina represented in the cosmopolitan mix. “Handel was this German expat guy living in London, who wrote Italian opera for an audience that didn’t speak Italian. The only people who could sing his virtuosic stuff were Italians! But we’re now in a golden age for singers who can perform Handel’s virtuoso music and invest his roles with completely compelling realism.”