DVD + Blu-Ray:
Handel: Xerxes (Serse)

Rising opera star Gaëlle Arquez in the title role of Serse - "...a great evening of opera.“ (Deutschlandfunk).

Serse is one of Handel’s latest and most frequently performed operas, famous for its marvellous opening aria “Ombra mai fu”. At the centre of the confusing tragic comedy, very loosely based upon the life of Xerxes I of Persia, is a powerful and lovesick royal eccentric, King Serse.

Rising opera star Gaëlle Arquez in the title role of Serse “scintillates with her nimble, luminous mezzo-soprano”, singing “irresistibly beautiful, impassioned, furious – but never mean” (Frankfurter Rundschau). Conducted by Constantinos Carydis, the performance is also musically excellent. “Over and over again, the orchestra, in an intelligent, often witty way, comments with improvised gestures on the stage proceedings, the fine dynamic differentiation, and the many eloquent timbres” (Stuttgarter Nachrichten).

Frankfurt’s excellent Opern- and Museumsorchester contributes “all sorts of refinements” to this “musical smash hit” (Deutschlandfunk) and „In Frankfurt Tilmann Köhler ensures a three-hour short abundant and furious banquett… a great evening of opera.“ (Deutschlandfunk).

Original title Handel: Xerxes (Serse)
Genre Opera
Recording location Oper Frankfurt, January 2017
Duration 180 mins
Production Company A production of UNITEL in co-production with NHK
Composer George Frideric Handel
Orchestra / Band Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester
Conductor Constantinos Carydis
Choir Vocalensemble
Stage Director Tilmann Köhler
Soloist Gaëlle Arquez, Lawrence Zazzo, Elizabeth Sutphen, Louise Alder, Tanja Ariane Baumgartner