Serse tragedy and comedy or high and low class characters. The musicologist Charles Burney later took "Serse" to task for violating decorum in this way, writing: "I have not been able to discover the author of the words of this drama: but it is one of the worst Handel ever set to Music: for besides feeble writing, there is a mixture of tragic-comedy and buffoonery in it, which Apostolo Zeno and Metastasio had banished from serious opera." Another unusual aspect of "Serse" is the number of short, one-part arias, when a typical opera seria of Handel's time was almost wholly made
James Lockhart (music director) James Lockhart (music director) James Lockhart (born 16 October 1930) is a Scottish conductor, pianist and organist who served as music director for a number of organisations. Lockhart was born on 16 October 1930 in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal College of Music. He worked as a ' (singing coach) at the ', Germany from 1955 to 1956. He was music director at Welsh National Opera from 1968 to 1972, and at the opera of the "" from 1972 to 1978 — the first British born person to hold that position with a German opera. He was the Royal