Artaxerxes (opera) - Noted Arias

Noted Arias

• The Soldier, tir'd of war's alarms (sung by Mandane in Act 3) was a frequently performed recital piece for virtuoso sopranos, particularly in the 19th century. It was sung by Henriette Sontag in many of her American concerts, although one contemporary New York critic pronounced it "Nothing but a tie-wig-ish vocal exercise in triplets from beginning to end". Its popularity with singers continued into the 20th century. Both Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills have recorded the aria.

• Water parted from the sea (sung by Arbaces in Act 3) was a popular concert piece in the 18th and 19th centuries. There are also several allusions to it in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. According to Green Room Gossip (London, 1808), its beauty caused considerable friction between Arne and Charlotte Brent, the first Mandane.

  When Dr Arne first brought the Opera of Artaxeres to a rehearsal, Tenducci sung the Air "Water parted from the Sea" with such effect that Miss Brent for whom the part of Mandane was composed, flew to Dr Arne with some violence, and told him "he might get whom he pleas'd to take Mandane; because he had given the best air in the piece to Tenducci." In vain the poor Doctor strove to sooth her - she was ungovernable. He retired from the theatre - sat down, and having written the first words of "Let not rage thy bosom firing" composed an air to them in the same character as "Water parted," though it is inferior in other respects: This he presented to Miss Brent, who being struck with the application of the first line to her own violence of temper, told the Doctor "that she was appeased, and would sing to the utmost of her ability to serve him."

• O too lovely, too unkind (sung by Arbaces in Act 1) has been recorded by Marilyn Horne and appears on Decca's The Age Of Bel Canto. According to Simon Heighes, its orchestration with muted violins and a pizzicato bass was an influence on Philip Hayes's orchestration for the aria Soon arrives thy fatal hour in his 1763 masque, Telemachus.

• Fair Aurora, pr'ythee stay (sung by Arbaces and Mandane in Act 1) was heard in the United States as early as 1769 in a concert at New York's Vauxhall Gardens and again in that city in 1794 in a concert at the City Tavern. It was also sung by Raynor Taylor and Miss Huntley in a concert in Philadelphia in 1796 and published that same year as an arrangement for piano and voice by Filippo Trisobio with the title, A Celebrated Duett In Artaxerxes. Fair Aurora. Unlike the more bravura pieces in the opera, it was described by George Hogarth in 1835 as "a charming imitation of the simpler Italian style of that period".