This has successfully completed my transformation into Handel's biggest fan. I've already waxed lyrical about his wonderful vocal writing, so there's not really much more I could possibly say on the subject...but Ombra Mai Fu from his opera Xerxes is one of the most beautifully calming arias I've ever come across.
Though...the text is a little bit strange! In opera we're used to Romantic expression of massive passions and feelings in the form of a lovely little compact aria. However, this seems to be about a tree. King Xerxes seeks enlightenment from said beloved tree as the plot of the opera begins, opening with what is now perhaps one of Handel's most celebrated pieces. The story of Xerxes is a little bit confusing...I think I'll have to watch it sometime to fully understand - but for now I'll just paste a particularly mind-bending extract from the all-knowing wikipedia;
King Xerxes, looking up from contemplation of his beloved tree, sees Romilda, the daughter of his vassal Ariodate, and makes up his mind to marry her. However, Romilda and Xerxes' brother, Arsamene, love eachother, while Romilda's sister, Atalanta, is also determined to make Arsasmene hers. Amastre, Xerxes' fiancee, forsaken by him for Romilda, disguises herself as a man and observes Xerxes.
Well that's a crazy love-rhombus and a disguise already established and they haven't even got onto the main plot yet! It's one for watching more than reading I think...
The beauty of this music mirrors the beauty of what Xerxes is singing about. It's simple, and natural - everything seems to grow from an organic place - no note is superfluous. In a good interpretation, like Bartoli's, the first note grows and blooms as it moves through the pulse of the music. It's regal, as one would expect from a King, though not haughty - the perfect representation of a figure alone in contemplation.
Handel was a legend, who could elegantly transform something that on the surface is about a tree, into something much much more :)
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