Serse January, the third by 6 February, and Handel put the finishing touches to the score on 14 February. "Serse" was first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket on 15 April 1738. The first production was a complete failure. The audience may have been confused by the innovative nature of the work. Unlike his other operas for London, Handel included comic ("buffo") elements in "Serse". Although this had been typical for 17th-century Venetian works such as Cavalli's original setting of the libretto, by the 1730s an "opera seria" was expected to be wholly serious, with no mixing of the genres of
Music of Scotland in the eighteenth century the social upheavals of the Agricultural revolution and Highland Clearances that were seen as destroying the traditions and culture of the Highlands, the music of the Highland bagpipes began a revival. The Highland Society of London, formed in 1778, put an emphasis on bagpiping, particularly the ceòl mór (the great music), which had developed for ceremonial purposes for the Gaelic aristocracy from the seventeenth century. From 1781 the society organised ceòl mór competitions that became the basis for later gatherings in Scotland. The Italian style of classical music was probably first brought to Scotland by the cellist and composer Lorenzo