Serse

It is interesting to observe how what might have surprised or disconcerted an eighteenth-century listener is perceived today in a profoundly different way.
The elements that probably determined the failure of the first performance of Serse are precisely those that, in our times, make it an innovative opera, suitable for today’s audiences.

Indeed, the agile dramaturgical rhythm imprinted in the first act by the unusually large number of arias without « da capo » (furthermore puctuated by recitative interventions), as well as the use of humorous or grotesque elements and situations, takes us by surprise and pleasantly plunges us into an atmosphere of pure theatre – something which, on the other hand, confounded the audience at the King’s Theatre in 1738.

It is clear that to tackle this score and to give it the right emotional and theatrical intensity means that the musicians and singers have to take on a special commitment to the logic of « acting in music », paying close attention to declamation and pronunciation, especially in the recitatives, seeking a truth in the expression of emotions and affections that will make the audience forget about histrionic pretence and seduce them into the story. A careful study of the word rhythm and of reaction times in the dialogues, which must be as plausible and objective as possible.

In the arias without « da capo » all the musical and textual meaning is expressed intensely, ending and being completed in a single section; whereas with the tripartite arias we have placed specific attention on repetition, giving the variations a sense that is not merely a matter of virtuoso, but deeply linked to the meaning of the text, giving repetition a unique and even greater emphasis.

As for the instrumental parts, we have tried to engage in dialogue with the voices, pursuing and aspiring to that « speaking » sound through articulations and emissions that come as close as possible to the human accents, to the language and gestures of that era – to us this is the true nature and meaning of philology, far beyond the mere use of period instruments and the (fundamental, of course) knowledge of the original treatises and sources.