Handel's Serse
Clarac & Deloeuil (stage directors), David Bates (conductor) — With Jake Arditti (Serse), Jakub Józef Orliński (Arsamene), Mari Eriksmoen (Romilda)...
Cast
Olivier-Daniel Deloeuil — Stage director, set and costume design
Jean-Philippe Clarac — Stage director, set and costume design
Rick Martin — Lighting designer
Julien Roques — Video graphics designer
Program notes
Formed by directors Jean-Philippe Clarac and Olivier Deloeuil, the Clarac-Deloeuil > Le Lab collective reinvents one of Handel’s lesser known operas, Serse, featuring the voices of Jakub Józef Orliński, Jake Arditti, and Cecilia Molinari!
In this new adaptation of the 1738 opera, the capricious King of Persia, Serse (Xerxes), becomes the head of a band of young skaters, torn by the desires and challenges of adolescence. Engaged to Amastre, Serse abandons his betrothed when he catches a glimpse of Romilda. The latter is in love with Serse’s brother, Arsamene, and she tries to derail the leader of the skaters' advances while Amastre tries everything to get him back. At the same time, Serse tries to get one over on his brother, pleasing Atalante (Romilda’s sister) who is in love with Amastre. Handel’s score is filled with captivating rhythms and features no fewer than 50 arias! Light and full of life, the opera displays a group of young lovers without ever ridiculing them for their passions, carried by some of Handel’s most tender and sumptuous arias including the iconic “Ombra mai fu” where Serse, full of arrogance, declares his love for his skateboard instead of the tree of the original version.
Without being, strictly speaking, an opera buffa, Serse pays homage to Venetian opera traditions by putting comedy at the heart of the drama. Discover this opera as you’ve never seen it before in this audacious staging by Clarac and Deloeuil who admit that “in skateboarding and in love, everything is a question of rhythm”!
