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" Ombra mai fu" ("Never was a shade…"), also known as "Largo from Xerxes" or "Handel's Largo", is the opening aria from the opera Serse (1738) by George Frideric ...
The King of Persia, Serse, gives effusive, loving thanks to the plane tree for furnishing him with shade (Arioso: "Ombra mai fu"). His brother Arsamene, with his buffoonish servant Elviro, enters, looking for Arsamene's sweetheart Romilda. They stop as they hear her singing from the summerhouse. Romilda is making gentle fun of Serse with her song.
The first act begins with the well-known aria "Ombra mai fu" ("There was never a shadow"). [7] According to Martha Novak Clinkscale, Handel's later, more famous setting "is neither more poignant nor mellifluous than Cavalli's".
Bononcini's Xerse was in turn adapted by Handel in his Serse with a third (and best known) version of "Ombra mai fu". Bononcini's song "Vado ben spesso cangiando loco" was used by Franz Liszt in his suite for piano Années de pèlerinage : Deuxième année: Italie under the erroneous title " Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa ".
Movement Type Grove [1] reference Händel-Gesellschaft reference Hallische Händel-Ausgabe reference Notes 1 Prelude: 107 xlviii, 149 The prelude did not appear in the first edition published by John Walsh [2] and was taken from Handel's keyboard suite HWV 428.
The music is almost all taken from Handel operas. For this ballet he exhumed forgotten numbers from, among others, Ariodante, Il pastor fido, Parnasso in festa and Rodrigo, adding at the climax the only well-known number in the score, the "Largo" – "Ombra mai fu" – from Serse, transcribed for the full orchestra. [12]
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Hvorostovsky came to international prominence in 1989 when he won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, beating local favourite Bryn Terfel in the final round. . His performance included Handel's "Ombra mai fu" and "Per me giunto...O Carlo ascolta" from Verdi's Don Carl