Intermezzo

Herheim's Xerxes - the video evidence

Reviewers have been unanimously enthralled with this new production, which opened at the Komische Oper on Sunday. But then who can resist a dancing sheep?

Stefan Herheim's Xerxes opens in Berlin

Stefan Herheim's new production of Handel's Serse opens tonight at the Komische Oper Berlin (sung auf Deutsch as Xerxes). Designed in the now-familiar mix of periods and styles, it incorporates baroque style flat sets, neon signs, blokes dressed as sheep and possibly more cross-dressing than strictly required. Scroll down to see how he tackles Ombra mai fu.

English Touring Opera's Xerxes

Xerxes - English Touring Opera - Britten Theatre, 8 October 2011

Xerxes (aka Serse) is not one of Handel's easiest operas to stage - or to love. The insufferably pompous hero is hard to warm to, and his improbable volte-face at the neatly happy ending sets new standards for implausibility in baroque opera.

English Touring Opera's solution is to capitalise on the comic elements. A Battle of Britain airbase stands in for ancient Persia. King Xerxes is a plucky pilot who conveniently forgets he's already been promised to a foreign princess when he falls for his brother Arsamene's girlfriend, a nurse. He sings his opening aria Ombra mai fu beneath a plane of the Spitfire variety, and Nicholas Hytner's English translation ensures a dashed jolly good time is had by all.