Serse

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Serse (Xerxes). Opera in 3 acts by Handel to anonymous text revised from a lib. by S. Stampiglia for Bononcini's Il Xerse, Rome 1694, based on Minato's Il Xerse written for Cavalli, Venice 1654. Comp. 1737–8. Prod. London 1738, Northampton, Mass., 1928. Contains in Act I aria Ombra mai fù for Serse, male sop., praising a tree that gives him shade. It is marked larghetto, but the tune, in countless spurious arrs., has become known as ‘ Handel's Largo’.