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" Ombra mai fu" ("Never was a shade ... The song is also used in the Stephen Frears film Dangerous Liaisons (1989) during a private performance in an aristocratic ...
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".
"Largo" is the opening aria from Handel's opera Serse (Xerxes), a popular composition titled "Ombra mai fu" but usually nicknamed "Largo" (despite being larghetto). "Laurelei" is a variant spelling of the Lorelei Rhine maiden, so as not to conflict with a song by fellow 4AD artists Cocteau Twins.
In March 1757, possibly without much involvement from the blind and aging Handel, the oratorio was further expanded and revised. The libretto was reworked into English, probably by the composer’s prolific last librettist, Thomas Morell, while John Christopher Smith Jr. probably assembled the score.
Ombra mai fu – Based on the aria from Handel's Serse; Furioso – Based on Handel's "Sarabande", words from Psalm 7; Sogno – Based on the aria from Puccini's La rondine; Metamorphosis 2: Danae; Ballo – Based on an aria from Verdi's Ballo in maschera; Interlude: Lorchestre Engloutie; Amami – Based on the aria from Verdi's La traviata
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".
George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (/ ˈ h æ n d əl / HAN-dəl; [a] baptised Georg Fried[e]rich Händel, [b] German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈhɛndl̩] ⓘ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) [3] [c] was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos.