Serse Serse Serse (; English title: "Xerxes"; HWV 40) is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The Italian libretto was adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier opera of the same name by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694. Stampiglia's libretto was itself based on one by Nicolò Minato that was set by Francesco Cavalli in 1654. The opera is set in Persia (modern-day Iran) about 470 BC and is very loosely based upon Xerxes I of Persia. Serse, originally sung by a
Music history of Hungary a complex rhythmic structure. Italian religious music played an important role in this development, which was documented in an "unparalleled example of ancient Hungarian music", the "Harmonia Caelestis" of Prince Pál Eszterházy, who tried to create a distinctively Hungarian style of church music using influences from opera, oratio literature, the German music of Johann Kaspar von Kerll and Johann Schmeltzer, and the oratorio and cantata styles. Eszterházy's efforts did not last, as the following century saw an influx of muic from Western Europe under the Habsburgs. Around the start of the 18th century, however, the last national uprising of the