Handel: Xerxes [Serse] (complete opera recorded in 2007)
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GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL
Handel: Xerxes [Serse] (complete opera recorded in 2007)
Frankfurt Opera / Gaëlle Arquez, Elizabeth Sutphen, Lawrence Zazzo, Louise Alder / Constantinos Carydis (cond)
[ C Magor DVD / DVD ]
Release Date: Friday 14 September 2018
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Xerxes is one of Handel's latest and most frequently performed operas, famous for its marvelous opening aria 'Ombra mai fu'. At the centre of the confusing tragicomedy, very loosely based upon the life of Xerxes I of Persia, is a powerful and lovesick royal eccentric, King Xerxes. Rising opera star Gaëlle Arquez in the title role of Xerxes 'scintillates with her nimble, luminous mezzo-soprano', singing 'irresistibly beautiful, impassioned, furious - but never mean' (Frankfurter Rundschau). Frankfurt's excellent Opera and Museum Orchester contributes 'all sorts of refinements' to this 'musical smash hit' (Deutschlandfunk) and 'In Frankfurt Tilman Köhler ensures a three-hour short abundant and furious banquett … a great evening of opera' (Deutschlandfunk).
"Köhler stages the emotional rollercoaster of the first two acts around a huge dining table…The idea of the broken feast perfectly captures the disruptive nature of Xerxes's tyranny…Arquez is magnificent as Xerxes, and Elizabeth Sutphen makes a touching Romilda, feisty as well as tender. For once the put-upon Arsamene has an inner life of his own with the countertenor Lawrence Zazzo making a feast of his Act II aria 'Quella che tutte fè'. In the pit Constantinos Carydis never lets pace of musical imagination flag." BBC Music
"While the director plays up the elements of chaos…and incipient cruelty, his modern-dress staging, complete with video-installations, is theatrically compelling and psychologically convincing. In a uniformly fine, camera-friendly cast, all the singers throw themselves with gusto into their roles and interact vividly…Arquez rightly dominates, vocally and dramatically…Carydis's direction, always responsive to the singers, meshes well with the production." Gramophone
