Handel - Xerxes (Serse) / Nicholas Hytner Â· Sir Charles Mackerras Â· Ann Murray Â· Lesley Garrett Â· ENO

Starring:Ann Murray (II), Valerie Masterson, Christopher Robson, Jean Rigby, Lesley Garrett, Christopher Booth-Jones, Rodney Macann
Director: John Michael Phillips
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
Xerxes is one of Handel's rare ventures into comedy, a parody of the amorous complexities, heroic posturing, and overwrought emotions of opera seria. The story is set in the Persian Empire around 475 B.C., and its central character, Emperor Xerxes I, is historic, though the story is emphatically not. It is a tangled plot, with a resemblance to many other baroque plots, except that it is not taken seriously. Xerxes and his brother Arsamene are both in love with the same woman, Romilda. She is in love with Arsamene, as is her sister Atalanta. The plot gets even more complicated when a love letter from Arsamene to Romilda falls into Atalanta's hands. In addition, Xerxes has been betrothed to Amastre but has rejected her. She comes on, intent on revenge and disguised as a man--a fact that may confuse viewers of this production because the role of Xerxes, composed for a castrato, is sung by a woman.

Nicholas Hytner's staging not only accepts the plot's underlying absurdities, it revels in them and pushes them up to and beyond any logical conclusion. The opera is translated visually into postmodernism, as its text (originally in Italian) is translated into English. The sets and costumes evoke London society in Handel's lifetime, but there are also items from the ancient Persian Empire, most notably a giant green animal statue. The chorus and supernumeraries are made up to look like statues. The music includes some of Handel's best work, Sir Charles Mackerras conducts the modern-instrument orchestra with exemplary style, and the singers give dramatically effective performances. But this production stands or falls essentially on its visuals. Baroque purists and those who do not like nontraditional staging will prefer the BMG audio recording on period instruments sung in Italian and conducted by Nicholas McGegan. --Joe McLellan
Description
Nicholas Hytner's highly innovative production of Handel's comic opera won the coveted Laurence Olivier Opera Award. This live recording from the English National Opera stars Ann Murray as Xerxes, whose love for Romilda, sung by Valerie Masterson, sets off a series of love intrigues. The designer, David Fielding, has produced a stunning and elegant series of curious and absorbing images, creating a world of its own and recreating the culture of Vauxhall Gardens in Handel's own time. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts the English National Opera Orchestra in an edition prepared by himself. Also starring Christopher Robson, Jean Rigby, Lesley Garrett, and Christopher Booth-Jones. 186 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

Serse - Rasmussen - wow.......2007-05-06

EuroArts' DVD of George Frederick Handel's Serse (as in Xerxes, king of Persia) is a dazzling array of voices. Handel opera edges towards the silly side, which the sets followed with an elongated, tall, leather couch, with enough room a hockey team, let alone two sisters. Nevertheless, given a chance to listen to a sterling show from Paula Rasmussen, as Serse, this is hot.

Serse's brother Arsamene is sung astutely by Ann Hallenberg. She has a wonderful sound. Playing the second banana, Hallenberg craftily goes for the sweeter surfaces of her songs and comes across as the character everyone is pulling for. She is an amazing mezzo.

Paula Rasmussen is Serse, and the woman of the match. She makes it sound so easy. Her rounded notes have a crystalline ring to them. Rasmussen softly hammers "Ombra mai fu" - Handel covering Cavalli - that's right, a tree's shade is everything! Her entrance to that aria is superb, as she comes in on the backbeat, off the band's fade, and builds her elongated phrases into something lovely. This kid is brilliant in her trouser role. BTW - if you get a chance to hear her sing Cherubino (Figaro), go for it, as she is the cat's pajamas - no one comes close. It is ridiculous how remarkable a voice Rasmussen has - she makes everyone around her sound better.

Oil and Water.......2006-10-28

Baroque music has a fairly large and enthusiastic following. Anyone seeking to add a superlative Handel to their collection could not go wrong with this one. For those relatively new to clasical music in general and opera specifically, you might have an adjustment phase to go through. Most of us have seen the period piece movie set in the opulent mansion with ladies in complex gowns doing the minuet with the handsome soldiers...all so regimented and ordered. Meaning, not a whole lot of spontaneity, nor are there any pratfalls, or the striking of awkward positions.
There is but one actor/vocalist in this one who does preceisly that, for a little comic relief. It is Matteo Peirone who plays the affable, take a sip now and then, Elviro, valet to the jilted brother of Xerxes. He can actually sing quite well; but is required to disguise himself to deliver a letter, at risk of his life - and therefore- disguises his singing voice as well - in a not so melifluous timbre. I have to admire that. One could call it a bad career move; and thus find oneself forever cast as a buffoon. Nonetheless, he does his part very well, and our hat is off to that devoted player who can take a bit part and do wonders with it. He reminded me over and over of the part of Dr. Dulcamara in the Alagna, Georghiu production of "L'Elisir d'Amore" by Donizetti. Handel's music is a generation before Donizetti's exhilirating melodic romps, so it is not fair to compare the two.

The opening score of Handel's Xerxes is just gorgeous. Our attention is immediately drawn to the conductor and the unsung heroes of opera, the musicians. The singers often have at least a break between long arias, but the musicians must work on and on. These do so wonderfully. It is quite amazing to hear what devoted musicians can do with a mere twelve tones. If they were not able to play so expressively , so impressively, I wonder if Baroque music would have the enthusiastic following it has without them.

On now to the vocalists, who also pull some rabits out of the hat with a mere twelve tones also. It is explained in the liner notes that in those days "castratti" played the roles. We are no longer that barbaric, thank God, to require people to sacrifice their sex lives in order to perform drama with orchestral works. It explains further that if the parts were rewritten for a tenor, "it just didn't come across the same" - words to that effect.I remain unconvinced. It still makes you wonder. All that upper range just makes me hunger for the male voice. This then, is the reasoning behind casting male parts with female vocalists. To me, this was just so distracting, it was difficult to just enjoy the drama, the orchestra, and the singing. Singing which was pyrotechnic, to be sure. The primary objet d'amore, Romilda, played by Isabel Bayrakdarian is a case in point. You certainly will find her as alluring as King Xerxes and his rival for her love, Xerxes own brother Arsamene, played by Ann Hallenberg-nor will you be disappointed with Isabel's acting and marvelous quality of voice. A woman two men could easily find themselves fighting over.
Patricia Bardon portrays for us the coquettish Atalanta, who schemes to tangle things up so she can take Xerxes brother away from her rival, Romilda - (the good looking sister). She does a fine and a cutely salacious job of that.
I save the best for last, the role of King Xerxes, and the American Paula Rasmussen who takes on the title role, including the enormous task of dressing, acting, and even striding like 'the man in charge'. But far more than that...her voice. Oh my gosh, her voice. When she does her musical soliloquy, you want to stop everything and just listen. Make a note of the scene number so you can return to it.

I bought this DVD solely on the strength of her performance in "L'Viaggio a Reims", the Gran Teatra Liceu production ( one of my top all time favourites, and if you don't have that one yet, you better act fast before it becomes out of reach price wise ). This is the most startling thing of all, I suppose. In L'Viaggio she is nothing less, nothing more, than The most comely and womanly thing on the planet. And my gosh, her voice. I think you will have to agree. In Viaggio, she does a trio with a lover 'wannabe', herself, and the fellow who has "dibs on her" so to speak...and all three take turns with a Rossini aria requiring all three to jump an octave again and again, and again. There, of course, you would hear clearly Paula Rasmussen's highly coveted mezzo soprano. Clear as a bell, and when need be, low as a foghorn, and high as a bosun's whistle. Just amazing. But the womanliness. My gosh, the womanliness of her. I can easily imagine her playing Carmen. Someone pour a bucket of cold water on me, please.

I suppose you can understand my difficulty with Paula as King Xerxes. She does a wonderful job. It is said that the violin was an attempt to come close to the human voice, and some violins are indeed, true wonders. But compared to Paula's voice?...it is nooooo contest. Breathtaking.
So please...no more casting of Paula as a male....this was interesting, and a keeper for that reason...but please...is nothing sacred? Look at her some time in a bathing suit ( vis L'viaggio a Reims ).

I have only one serious demerit to register with this production, and that would have to be the set design. Same Mr. Tomassi did the costumes, and they are par excellent - plus magnifique. But the set...oh dear God.
All black and white,(costumes also), all contemporary motif, all hard unyielding stone, all dark, and more foreboding than this libretto requires. If that were not bad enough... there's this "Erector Set" look to the cloyingly boring grid of industrial strength- square metal tubing all over the set, without relief for hours. The " Tree " in the tale, demands center stage, and it too is a great blob of pewter slag, framed within , you guessed it, the same square tubing framework. A dark, almost black "marble" floor.
It just does not work.

For the love of God, please do these devoted musicians and vocalists a huge favor next time, and let them have some say so. This array of talent deserves better than to be framed in by scrap metal. Ye gods.

Great Reason for Looking into Handel's Italian Operas.......2006-07-03

The plot (?) of this piece basically has everybody loving somebody doesn't love them except for one couple who love each other in secret. They fend off advances from another man who loves the secretly loved sister while the jealous and manipulative (but not really bad) sister does her best to split them up; she wants the man her sister is with. There's more but it's even more confusing.

Don't worry about it. This is a great production. The music is great, the staging is great and the singers are great.

It's impossible to pick the best singer from this ensemble. Isabel Bayrakdarian has a great voice, excellent technique and her performances are always tasteful. She gets to sing "Né men combe l'endre", one of the loveliest arias in the entire opera. Anyone who's not moved by her rendition of this piece is probably already dead. Paula Rasmussen's voice has the lightest tonal shadings of the three mezzo-sopranos in the cast. Her voice is smooth, well controlled and mostly free of vibrato. Anne Hallenberg has a deeper pitch and sings with bell-like tones that resonate through the air. There's a considerable amount of vibrato in her voice but she controls it well. Patricia Bardon has a voice that's powerful and exceptionally deep. And she uses those shadings to convey emotion well. She is one of the standouts of the cast.

The two men in the cast are both bass baritones. Marcello Lippi's voice is deep and commanding but multi-faceted as well. He uses it to convey the thoughtful nature of a philosopher the warmth of a parent and the authority of a commander with equal aplomb. Matteo Peirone has a higher voice and silkier tones but plenty of range and volume. He provides most of the comic relief and he does it well.

Picking the best singer may be impossible but Sandrine Piau is clearly the best actress. It's not because any of the other cast members are weak. They're not. She's just that good. She's physically expressive enough to define her character clearly without dialogue or music. Her timing is fabulous and she plays the role with the glee kittens have when they find a new ball of wool. And her singing is as good as her acting. Her technique is breathtaking. She never sounds strained or shrill even in the most difficult passages. The music Handel wrote for the part of "Atalanta" is extremely demanding but Piau navigates the toughest passages with ease. She's a joy to watch and listen to.

There are plenty of highlights. Anne Hallenberg's rendition of "Non so,se sia la sperme" is fabulous. The duet between her and (Paula) Rasmussen, "Io le diró che l'amo"/ "Tu le dirai che l'ami" is delivered brilliantly. Rasmussen's performance of "Ombra mai fu" is easily on par with the recent version released by Renée Fleming. Patricia Bardon rends the heart strings with her interpretation of "Cagion son io mio dolore" and Sandrine Piau shows how to handle vocal acrobatics the right way when she sings "Dirá, che amor per me". The Sinfonia that opens the third act is three and a half minutes of pure enchantment. The list goes on ...

Christophe Rousset has emerged as a brilliant conductor. It shouldn't be a surprise though. His experience with this repertoire and his credentials as a harpsichordist make him a natural to take this step. His tempo is flexible but nothing ever seems rushed or slow. The balance he maintains between the singers and the orchestra is excellent and he knows when to pull back or add some force. Best of all, he's only going to get better.

The staging is set somewhere between the era of British Imperialism and what looks like a Puccini take on modern day Persia. The sets are extravagant, often bordering on garish but they never overpower the action. Most are glass (probably Plexiglass for safety reasons) or tile in a framework that's meant to look as if it's made of Stainless Steel. The tree set in the midst of most of them sits in a display case of similar design and material. They're colourful and loud but they provide an air of splendour that would be expected in the court of a Monarch. The sound is also good. It's not quite on par with the audio found on many concert DVD releases but it's clear and vibrant. And it's not burdened with the endless line of delay (artificial ambience that sounds as legitimate as a three dollar bill feels) that's finding its way to host of releases these days either. The menus are easy to navigate, the only quirk being that the subtitles have to be activated manually.

There are a few things that make suspension of belief difficult. Sandrine Piau and Isabel Bayrakdarian are never going to convince anybody they're from the same bloodline let alone the same parents. Patricia Bardon doesn't even begin to look like a man. This may be intentional (given the fact that Paula Rasmussen and Anne Hallenberg are entirely convincing) but she still should have to come across as "masculine enough" to fool the other cast members. She doesn't. She has too many voluptuously sexy curves that stand out like, well, voluptuously sexy curves. Last (but far from least), the "instant resolution" (so typical of Grand Opera once the Librettist and Composer run out of time and music) for the two and a half hours of muddled lust set to song strains credibility as much as the idea of Bayrakdarian and Piau being sisters.

But it opens the door for Isabel Bayrakdarian to sing a great piece of music to close the show with so all is forgiven. And it really is forgiven. The absurdities aside, this is a wonderfully entertaining performance. The story is silly. But the performances are engaging and the music is beautiful. It's great entertainment.

That's what really counts.

perfect performance.......2006-03-18

A hundred and forty minutes of sheer pleasure.
Excelent singers, all seven singers are perfect both in appearance and singing.
Perfect orchestra and conductor, not to mention handel's sublime music.

It Simply Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!.......2005-11-25

In the past, to the degree that Handel's 'Serse' ('Xerxes') remained in the memory of the general music-lover, it was for its opening aria, 'Ombra mai fu' (often simply called 'Handel's Largo' or 'The Largo from Xerxes') that it is remembered. But since the re-examination of Handel's operas of the last thirty years or so, the opera has become very popular, second only to 'Julius Caesar' in its number of mountings. And this one at the Semper Opera from the 2000 Dresden Music Festival is simply stunningly done. It is under the musical direction of Christophe Rousset, leading his 'Les Talens Lyriques' who together have received nothing but plaudits for their presentations of baroque opera. The orchestral playing is simply superb. And the cast! There is not single weak member among the seven principals. Rousset made the decision to have King Xerxes sung by a coloratura mezzo-soprano, the American Paula Rasmussen; the role had originally been written for and sung by the castrato Caffarelli. The two daughters of Xerxes's commanding general, Romilda and Atalanta, are sung by two of the leading young sopranos of our day, respectively Isabel Bayrakdarian and Sandrine Piau. Amastre, a young woman who had been previously jilted by Xerxes and now posing as a young man (don't ask!), is sung fervently by the Irish contralto Patricia Bardon. Xerxe's brother Arsamene, and his contender for the hand of Romilda, is sung by Swedish mezzo Ann Hallenberg. (One is easily able to believe both Rasmussen and Hallenberg as male.) The only two male voices in the cast are Marcello Lippi as Ariodate, the general, and Matteo Peirone, as Arsamene's servant (and the primary comic character), Elviro.

The sets and costumes by Carlo Tommasi are gorgeous. The setting is done all in whites, blacks and grays, with occasional splashes of other muted colors. The superstructure for the first act (and for the finale) is an arrangement of huge metal-framed sliding glass panels - very striking - behind which can be seen a fantastic stylized plane tree - the object of Serse's opening love aria; possibly the only instance of a love song sung to a tree in all of opera. Stage business by Michael Hampe is uniformly interesting and often laugh-out-loud funny. He has made Xerxes's palace guard comic figures whose pomp is played for laughs.

Handel's score, for those of you who don't know it, is characterized by one gorgeous melody after another. Was there any other baroque opera composer whose melodies are so immediately memorable? Aside from 'Ombra mai fu,' (sung absolutely straight and all the funnier for it by Rasmussen) are Xerxes's fury arias 'Di tacere e di schernirmi' from Act I and 'Crude Furie degl'orridi abissi' in III as well as his duet with Amastre in II, 'Gran pena è gelosia.' Romilda, sung deliciously by Bayrakdarian, gets one of the greatest arias in her angry, comic 'Se l'idol mio rapir mi vuoi' from Act II. Sandrine Piau, one of the current queens (with good reason) of baroque opera, has a hilarious scena ('Un cenno leggiadretto') immediately following Romilda's just-mentioned aria in which she sings extraordinarily complicated (and spot-on) coloratura while getting dressed sexily before going out to vamp the king. I didn't know whether to laugh or applaud; I did both. (It doesn't hurt that Piau is a stunningly beautiful woman, as is Bayrakdarian.)

I had never seen a DVD of an opera Rousset had conducted before. Now I see what all the fuss has been about. He keeps things moving, is extraordinarily in synch with his singers, and gets pointed and glowingly lovely playing from his instrumentalists. From CDs I already knew he was a terrific harpsichordist (and he plays the continuo here).

I must say that seeing this DVD has done several things for me: it has made me a fan of several singers new to me, it has convinced me that Rousset is the real thing, and best of all it has made me watch a Handel opera straight through on DVD, something I'd never done before. I was transfixed throughout its entire 160 minutes.

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM Stereo; Picture format: 4:3 NTSC; Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish; Region code: 0 (DVD9); No bonus tracks

Strongest recommendation.

Scott Morrison

Handel - Xerxes (Serse) / Nicholas Hytner · Sir Charles Mackerras · Ann Murray · Lesley Garrett · ENO

Average customer rating:

While not performed often, this opera has some marvelous music and touching words
A travesty
Better than the average Handel
Correction
Bravo

Handel - Xerxes (Serse) / Nicholas Hytner · Sir Charles Mackerras · Ann Murray · Lesley Garrett · ENO
Starring: Ann Murray (II) , Valerie Masterson , Christopher Robson , Jean Rigby , and Lesley Garrett
Director: John Michael Phillips
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00004Y7IA
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Amazon.com

Xerxes is one of Handel's rare ventures into comedy, a parody of the amorous complexities, heroic posturing, and overwrought emotions of opera seria. The story is set in the Persian Empire around 475 B.C., and its central character, Emperor Xerxes I, is historic, though the story is emphatically not. It is a tangled plot, with a resemblance to many other baroque plots, except that it is not taken seriously. Xerxes and his brother Arsamene are both in love with the same woman, Romilda. She is in love with Arsamene, as is her sister Atalanta. The plot gets even more complicated when a love letter from Arsamene to Romilda falls into Atalanta's hands. In addition, Xerxes has been betrothed to Amastre but has rejected her. She comes on, intent on revenge and disguised as a man--a fact that may confuse viewers of this production because the role of Xerxes, composed for a castrato, is sung by a woman.

Description

Nicholas Hytner's highly innovative production of Handel's comic opera won the coveted Laurence Olivier Opera Award. This live recording from the English National Opera stars Ann Murray as Xerxes, whose love for Romilda, sung by Valerie Masterson, sets off a series of love intrigues. The designer, David Fielding, has produced a stunning and elegant series of curious and absorbing images, creating a world of its own and recreating the culture of Vauxhall Gardens in Handel's own time. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts the English National Opera Orchestra in an edition prepared by himself. Also starring Christopher Robson, Jean Rigby, Lesley Garrett, and Christopher Booth-Jones. 186 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

While not performed often, this opera has some marvelous music and touching words.......2007-01-06

While most of humanity lives for the moment, a few understand the importance of preserving aspects of their present to pass on to subsequent generations. Works of art are often among these treasures handed down. While there are many great reasons for this, one of them is to help them find an audience that they might not have enjoyed when they were created. This opera by Handel has confused audiences since its premier on April 15, 1738 at the Haymarket Theater. Handel had begun work on the opera during the previous December and had finished it about a month before the premier. It was given only five performances.

What is the problem with the opera? Maybe it was part fashion. His previous opera, "Faramondo" premiered January 3rd failed in the same theater as did the pasticcio "Alessandro Severo" from February. Each was performed a few times and were poorly attended despite having the sensational castrato Caffarelli in lead roles. Was it their being in Italian? Probably that was part of it as other entertainments in English were quite successful. Was it the music? Of course not! When we listen to "Xerxes" we are delighted with all the good things Handel's music brings to opera. The gorgeous character revealing arias, the surprisingly expressive recitative, the emotional laments, the delightful orchestrations, and the brilliant opportunities for drama and comedy.

I think Paul Henry Lang hits the nail on the head when he points to the fact that Handel had gone back to an existing libretto, actually an eighty year old libretto, by the Venetian poet and librettist, Nicolo Minato (who found more popularity among German composers than among his native Italians). Certainly, Handel had come to know this man's libretti during his studies in Italy. Lang points to the problem that this opera is not a comedy in the sense popular in the London of its time, and certainly isn't opera buffa. The Venetian sense of a comedy was taking great historical figures and showing them as regular folks with the usual besetting foibles.

Here, Xerxes is really just a self-centered fool and his being king offers some additional dramatic possibilities. He is devoted to his plane tree (the famous Largo is sung to and about the tree), becomes enchanted by Romilda and completely forgets his promised marriage to Amastris (ruler of a neighboring kingdom). The problem is that Romilda is already in love with Xerxes' brother, Arsamenes. When the king discovers this he sends his brother into exile (along with his comedy-enabling servant, Elviro). To complicate matters more, Romilda's sister, Atalanta, has an unrequited and largely unnoticed passion for Arsamenes. The sisters' father is Ariodates, who is a successful and politically ambitious general for Xerxes who thinks he sees and understands, but is quite clumsy off the battlefield.

The plot of the opera exists merely to provide opportunities for some wonderful music. While we don't believe the plot for one moment, we believe the passion, excitement, disgust, fury, and loss in the arias, ensembles, and choruses. We care about the moments more than the whole of the opera, and maybe that is what has been disconcerting over the centuries. We have become accustomed to describing plots and characters that do things. Here, we have characters who feel things and want things, but nothing much happens, except sorting out the misunderstandings so, in the end, things become what they should be.

This staging of the opera is quite interesting and finds some moments for some comedy that will make you laugh. The sets are quite pretty if not dazzling. One of the interesting features of the costumes and makeup is that only the main characters are "naturalistic". The chorus members and any subordinate character is made up in shades of gray that demonstrate their background status - and also their not being part of the royal household or circle. It is not set in the ancient world, but in some sort of blend of the London of Handel's time - evoking Vauxhall, but with Victorian propriety and proper behavior, which the real Vauxhall would not have known or wanted. But the time or place is not relevant because it isn't the historical Xerxes being portrayed, anyway.

Another interesting feature is that those who dress the sets are dressed as servants with white faces and black butler like suits. They serve the characters when needed, and move pieces on and off stage as necessary.

In this production from 1988, Ann Murray sings Xerxes quite well (it is traditional for women to sing a castrati role, and even in Handel's time, women were given male roles for soprano), Valerie Masterson sings Romilda beautifully (it was one of her later roles, and you will be surprised that she is one of the oldest cast members - I about fell down when I found out), Christopher Robson sings the king's brother, Arsamenes, and has a very beautiful and flexible countertenor voice. Jean Rigby is the slighted Amastris, betrothed to Xerxes, but when she comes to the kingdom in disguise as a man, discovers her future husband pursuing another woman for his wife. Rigby sings the role with fury and love.

Lesley Garrett is delightful and funny as Romilda's sister, Atalanta. I can still hear her singing one of the most exquisite lines in the opera. At one point Xerxes advisers her to cease her love for Arsamenes and her aria has her sing, "You advise me not to love him, but you cannot tell me how." Wow. As Elviro, Christopher-Booth Jones has the best funny lines in the opera and is the comic relief. He pulls it off superbly. And I love the way Rodney Macann gets over-excited as Ariodates. He gets so wound up in his melismas that he often has to be calmed by those he is with.

I enjoyed this production very much and having it sung in English was exactly right. If Handel had had singers in his day who could have sung it in English, I am sure he would have done so.

A travesty.......2005-09-04

I purchased this dvd a few months ago, and watched it for a half an hour or so, but then gave up because I couldn't understand the words. No subtitles, you see. The other day, I finally remembered to track down the libretto in the library. This is N. Hytner's translation (ML 50 H246 S52 1985, if that helps). Hytner's introduction says: "As in all performing translations of opera, a compromise has been attempted between strict adherence to the literal sense of the Italian, and the need for an idiomatic English text which fits the music and conforms to the rhyme schemes of the original." Whatever the literary merits of Hytner's stylized 18th-century rendering may be, I can promise you that, without the Chester edition of the libretto, you will probably be lost. Of course, given the inane quality of the story, I can also vouch for the fact that you won't be missing much. In general, the story reflects the sorts of emotional struggles one might expect to find in a group of pimply pre-teens.
Unfortunately, "Xerxes" is undermined even further in this production. For one thing (or two), neither the sets nor the costumes communicate a coherent vision. The costuming seems particularly ill-conceived, with much of the supporting cast dressed in a dark gray that resembles window sealant, while two of the female leads are decked out as if they just sashayed out of a saloon in Dodge City. Perhaps the wild west idea isn't that far-fetched though - witness the large potted cactuses in Act II. Absurd, and dramatically pointless.
The performers further detract from the proceedings, in terms of both acting and singing. Valerie Masterson, to single out just one, neither looks the part, nor is she up to its technical demands. She has very conspicuous problems with intonation throughout and her tone frequently loses its focus, resulting in almost a squawk. As the lead, Ann Murray is perhaps the most assured singer here, but even she struggles with some of Handel's virtuoso writing. Her characterization of Xerxes is similarly unconvincing (although, since none of the characters amount to much more than cardboard cut-outs, there's not much remedy to be hoped for).
So what's left after all this is, of course, the composition itself. Handel's style, with its predictable amalgam of dramatic brilliance and shallow, formulaic facility, is front and center. And even that palls after, say, two hours of this arduous three-hours-plus journey into operatic wrongness.
One comes away from this production with a sense that a lot of resources were squandered on a project that was profoundly wrong-headed from its very inception. I would still be interested in seeing this opera in a production that hasn't been mangled to within of its life, as this one has. Perhaps, to begin with, one in Italian, with subtitles? And why not get rid of those folding green deck-chairs? And the servants in white-face? And that stupid trick with the bridge? Just leave the bridge offstage! I promise, I can imagine it! A more honest and less self-absorbed treatment might even leave me more charitably disposed towards Handel's music, which is the whole point, and a point which this travesty wholly lost sight of.

Better than the average Handel.......2005-07-06

For those who want to buy this I am going to list the points instead of summerizing the story which is what some reviewers have done here. Here are some hints:
1. This opera is translated into English (meaning it's sung in English)
2. The version I saw did not have subtitles and I had to get what they were singing. Somebody told me that the newer versions include English subtitles so ask the buyer before buying.
3. The acting is less than convincing but the singing is just velvety superb.

Correction.......2005-05-21

Just to re-assure current customers that this recording was made at the first revival (last performance of the run, in fact) in 1988. There has been NO subsequent TV recording made of this ENO production at the Coliseum (I should know, I was in it!) since that time. Just to clear up the confusion. Christopher Robson

Bravo.......2003-08-03

This is as fine an opera production as you will ever see--on film or in person. It is close to perfection. The music is glorious, the singers are brilliant, and the staging is outstanding. I've now seen this production at least ten times, first on VHS, and I never cease to marvel. The DVD is clearer than the VHS, and the sound is magnificent. Above all, buy this to see and hear Ann Murray. Bravo!

DVD:

DVD

Buster & Chauncey's Silent Night (REGION 1) (NTSC)

DVD: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Full Screen Edit

Spy Game