Arne: Artaxerxes

Home , Alfred (Arne opera), Artaserse, Artaserse (Hasse), Artaserse (Vinci), Artaxerxes (opera), Charles Burney

THE MOZARTISTS IAN PAGE

9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_COVER_SECTION_FINAL.indd 1 21/12/2020 17:55 Performing edition by Ian Page

Recorded at Air Studios, London, UK from 18 to 21 November 2009 and 2 April 2010 Produced and engineered by Philip Hobbs Post-production by Julia Thomas, Finesplice, UK Design by Toucari Live and Debbie Coates Cover image: Wall Carving, Persepolis, Iran © Alamy Photography by Stephen Page, www.fatkoala.biz

Orchestra playing on period instruments at A = 430 Hz

This recording followed a production of Artaxerxes at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2009, directed by Martin Duncan and designed by Johan Engels. It was originally released in 2010 on Linn Records. www.signumrecords.com

Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact We are extremely grateful to George & Efthalia Koukis and Sherman Lam for making this release possible. Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. Special thanks also to: Alamy, Big Yellow Self Storage, Kate Bingham & Jesse Norman, Anne Bulford OBE & All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted David Smith, Philip Carne MBE & Christine Carne, Michael & Jill Carpenter, David Challen CBE & Elizabeth in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior Challen, Mona Dahdaleh, Lucy & Guy Davison, Philip & Kate Douglas, Richard Ellington, Sir Vernon & Lady permission from Signum Records Ltd. Ellis, Andrew Gairdner MBE & Wendy Gairdner, Peter Goodwin, George Gordon, Julian Hardwick, Steve & Jennie Hoffman, Houlihan Lokey, Ian & Juliet Odgers, Elaine Padmore, Stephen Page, Dyrk Riddell, Hamish & ℗ 2010 The copyright in this recording is owned by The Mozartists Carole Ritchie, Joe & Christine Swanson, Tina & Victor Vadaneaux, John & Lady Judy Vereker, Raphael Vermeir © 2021 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd. and The CBE and Federica Vermeir, Michael & Rosemary Warburg, John Wates OBE & Carol Wates, Iain & Gilly Mozartists. Webb-Wilson, Peter Williams OBE & Roseanne Williams, and all the other organisations and individuals who so generously support our work. Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD Tel: +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 Email: [email protected]

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Libretto translated by Arne from Pietro Metastasio’s Artaserse

ARTAXERXES CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE countertenor

MANDANE ELIZABETH WATTS soprano

ARBACES CAITLIN HULCUP mezzo-soprano

ARTABANES ANDREW STAPLES tenor

SEMIRA REBECCA BOTTONE soprano

RIMENES DANIEL NORMAN tenor

THE MOZARTISTS Leader: Matthew Truscott Continuo: Mark Packwood/Steven Devine (harpsichord), Joseph Crouch (cello)

IAN PAGE conductor

Recitatives composed by Ian Page, finale by Duncan Druce

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CD 1 (68’06) Page ACT ONE

1 Overture (Poco più che andante – Larghetto – Gavotta) 5’13

2 Recitative: “Still silence reigns around” (Mandane, Arbaces) 0’29 24

3 No. 1, Duettino: “Fair Aurora, prithee stay” (Mandane, Arbaces) 2’16 24

4 Recitative: “Alas, thou know’st that for my love to thee” (Arbaces, Mandane) 1’13 25

5 No. 2, Air: “Adieu, thou lovely youth” (Mandane) 3’21 26

6 Recitative: “O cruel parting! How can I survive?” (Arbaces, Artabanes) 0’57 26

7 No. 3, Air: “Amid a thousand racking woes” (Arbaces) 4’38 28

8 Recitative: “Be firm, my heart”(Artabanes, Artaxerxes) 1’26 28

9 No. 4, Air: “Behold, on Lethe’s dismal strand” (Artabanes) 3’36 29

10 Recitative: “Stay, Artaxerxes, stay” (Semira, Artaxerxes) 0’29 30

11 No. 5, Air: “Fair Semira, lovely maid” (Artaxerxes) 3’26 30

12 Recitative: “I fear some dread disaster” (Semira, Rimenes) 1’29 31

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13 No. 6, Air: “When real joy we miss” (Rimenes) 1’59 32

14 Recitative: “Ye Gods, protectors of the Persian Empire” (Semira) 0’36 32

15 No. 7, Air: “How hard is the fate” (Semira) 4’01 33

16 Recitative: “Whither do I fly?”(Tutti) 3’23 33

17 No. 8, Air: “Thy father! Away, I renounce the soft claim” (Artabanes) 1’23 39

18 Recitative: “Ye cruel Gods, what crime have I committed” (Arbaces) 0’14 40

19 No. 9, Air: “Acquit thee of this foul offence” (Semira) 1’27 40

20 Recitative: “Appearance, I must own, is strong against me” 0’48 40 (Arbaces, Artaxerxes, Rimenes, Mandane)

21 No. 10, Air: “O too lovely, too unkind” (Arbaces) 4’24 42

22 Accompanied recitative: “Dear and beloved shade” (Mandane) 0’48 42

23 No. 11, Air: “Fly, soft ideas, fly”(Mandane) 5’01 42

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24 Recitative: “Guards, speed ye to the tower” (Artaxerxes, Artabanes) 0’37 43

25 No. 12, Air: “In infancy, our hopes and fears” (Artaxerxes) 2’12 44

26 Recitative: “So far my great resolve succeeds” (Artabanes, Arbaces) 1’28 44

27 No. 13, Air: “Disdainful you fly me” (Arbaces) 2’46 46

28 Recitative: “Why, my dear friend, so pensive” (Rimenes, Artabanes, Semira) 2’05 47

29 No. 14, Air: “To sigh and complain” (Rimenes) 1’51 49

30 Recitative: “How many links to dire misfortune’s chain” (Semira, Mandane) 1’12 50

31 No. 15, Air: “If o’er the cruel tyrant love” (Mandane) 3’00 51

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1 Recitative: “Which fatal evil shall I first oppose?” (Semira) 0’31 52

2 No. 16, Air: “If the river’s swelling waves” (Semira) 2’34 52

3 Recitative: “Ye solid pillars of the Persian Empire” (Tutti) 5’00 53

4 No. 17, Air: “By that belov’d embrace” (Arbaces) 3’31 58

5 Recitative: “Ah me, at poor Arbaces’ parting” (Mandane, Artabanes) 0’46 58

6 No. 18, Air: “Monster, away” (Mandane) 2’36 59

7 Recitative: “See, lov’d Semira” (Artaxerxes, Semira, Artabanes) 1’02 60

8 Accompanied recitative: “At last my soul has room” (Artabanes) 0’37 61

9 No. 19, Air: “Thou, like the glorious sun” (Artabanes) 4’58 62

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10 No. 20, Air: “Why is death for ever late” (Arbaces) 2’57 62

11 Recitative: “Arbaces! Gracious Heav’n” (Artaxerxes, Arbaces) 1’13 62

12 No. 21, Air: “Water parted from the sea” (Arbaces) 2’19 64

13 Recitative: “That face, secure in conscious innocence” (Artaxerxes) 0’25 64

14 No. 22, Air: “Though oft a cloud with envious shade” (Artaxerxes) 3’38 64

15 Recitative: “My son, Arbaces... where art thou retir’d?” (Artabanes, Rimenes) 1’52 65

16 No. 23, Air: “O let the danger of a son” (Rimenes) 2’15 67

17 Accompanied recitative: “Ye adverse Gods!” (Artabanes) 0’41 67

18 No. 24, Air: “O, much lov’d son, if death” (Artabanes) 5’15 67

19 Recitative: “Perhaps the King releas’d Arbaces” (Mandane, Semira) 1’34 68

20 No. 25, Air: “Let not rage, thy bosom firing” (Mandane) 4’24 70

21 Recitative: “What have I done? Alas, I vainly thought” (Semira) 0 ’24 70

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22 No. 26, Air: “’Tis not true that in our grief” (Semira) 4’08 71

23 Recitative: “Nor here my searching eyes” (Arbaces, Mandane) 1’20 71

24 No. 27, Duetto: “For thee I live, my dearest” (Arbaces, Mandane) 3’37 73

25 Recitative: “To you, my people, much belov’d” 2’20 74 (Artaxerxes, Artabanes, Semira, Mandane)

26 No. 28, Air: “The soldier, tir’d of war’s alarms” (Mandane) 3’33 76

27 Recitative: “Behold, my King, Arbaces at thy feet” 2’25 77 (Arbaces, Artaxerxes, Mandane, Artabanes)

28 No. 29, Finale: “Live to us, to Empire live” 3’36 79 (Semira, Mandane, Arbaces, Artaxerxes, Artabanes)

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Violin 1 Flute Matthew Truscott (leader) Lisa Beznosiuk/Rachel Brown Bojan Čičić Georgia Browne Daniel Edgar Ellen O’Dell Oboe Emilia Benjamin James Eastaway Ruth Slater Rachel Chaplin Violin 2 Clarinet William Thorp Jane Booth Elizabeth MacCarthy Julian Wheeler Jill Samuel Bassoon Nia Lewis Zoe Shevlin Hilary Michael Katrina Russell George Crawford Horn Viola Gavin Edwards Dorothea Vogel Claire Penkey Rose Redgrave Trumpet Cello Paul Sharp (solo, No. 28) Joseph Crouch (continuo) Simon Desbruslais Natasha Kraemer Ross Brown Bass Timpani Timothy Amherst Thomas Foster Elizabeth Bradley Harpsichord Mark Packwood (recitatives) Steven Devine (tutti)

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The Mozartists, under the dynamic leadership of conductor and artistic director Ian Page, are leading exponents of the music of Mozart and his contemporaries. Originally called Classical Opera, the company was founded in 1997, and has received widespread international acclaim for its stylish and virtuosic period-instrument orchestra, its imaginative and innovative programming, and its ability to nurture and develop world-class young artists.

The Mozartists perform regularly at the UK’s leading venues, including Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, Southbank Centre and Birmingham Town Hall, and have also toured to Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Greece and the Czech Republic. Renowned for their fresh and insightful interpretations of well-known masterpieces as well as for their ability to bring rare and neglected works to light, they have mounted staged productions of many of Mozart’s operas, and have also given numerous UK premières, including Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito, Telemann’s Orpheus, Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, Haydn’s Applausus and Hasse’s Piramo e Tisbe.

In 2015 the company launched MOZART 250, a ground-breaking 27-year project exploring the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences. Described by The Observer as “among the most audacious classical music scheduling ever”, this flagship project presents 250th anniversary performances of most of Mozart’s important works, placing them in context alongside other significant works by Mozart’s contemporaries.

Page and his ensemble have released over a dozen acclaimed recordings. Their first two CDs – ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’ and ‘Blessed Spirit – a Gluck retrospective’ – were both selected for Gramophone’s annual Critics’ Choice, and the first seven releases in their ongoing cycle of the complete Mozart operas have all attracted outstanding reviews. Other recent recordings have included ‘Mozart in London’ and the first two volumes in a new ‘Sturm und Drang’ series.

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Artax CD booklet.indd 13 18/12/2020 14:21:26 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 11 21/12/2020 17:58 Artaxerxes – an introduction by Ian Page

The life of Thomas Arne was inextricably linked with Covent Garden. He was born just off the famous piazza, on King Street, on 12 March 1710, and died, a week before his sixty-eighth birthday, in Bow Street. Nowadays a street named in the composer’s honour is situated within a minute’s walk of the Royal Opera House, just off Long Acre.

Arne’s greatest opera, Artaxerxes, was premièred at the Theatre Royal, the predecessor of the Royal Opera House, on 2 February 1762, and remained in the Covent Garden repertory until the late 1830s, receiving a documented one hundred and eleven performances before 1790. The young Mozart almost certainly attended a performance when he came to London in the mid-1760s, and Haydn was also accquainted with the work, enthusiastically exclaiming that he “had no idea we had such an opera in the English language”.

The main reason for the work’s subsequent neglect is a good one: the manuscript and all the original performance materials were burnt in the disastrous fire which destroyed the Theatre Royal in 1808. The opera’s overture, arias and duets had already been published, and so survive intact, as does the libretto, but none of the recitatives or the finale were printed, and they are therefore lost. This recording of Artaxerxes was made following a new production of the opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in November 2009. To create a complete performing edition of the work for this production I wrote new recitatives, and commissioned the musicologist, composer and baroque violinist Duncan Druce to create a new finale in the style of Arne. These are included in this recording.

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Artax CD booklet.indd 14 18/12/2020 14:21:26 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 12 21/12/2020 17:58 The composer Arne’s father, an upholsterer and coffin-maker, originally intended him for a career in the legal profession. With this in mind he had sent him to Eton College, but his son’s determination to become a musician was unwavering (as a child he had smuggled a spinet into his bedroom and dampened the strings with a handkerchief, so that he could practice at night while the rest of the family slept), and his father eventually consented to his son’s choice of profession. Arne is best known today as the composer of “Rule, Britannia”, which was originally written as part of the masque Alfred, but his output was immense. His settings of Comus (1738), Alfred (1740) and The Judgement of Paris (1742) established him as the leading English theatre composer of his day, and he also enjoyed great success with the songs he wrote for Shakespeare’s The Tempest, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. Soon, though, his productivity and popularity began to wane, and he was not to have another major success for nearly twenty years. Then, just as suddenly, he had three triumphs in as many years, with Thomas and Sally (1760), Artaxerxes and Love in a Village (both 1762). His greatest critical acclaim was reserved for his 1761 oratorio Judith, but this never achieved the success of Artaxerxes, whose fusion of ‘opera seria’ in the Italian style sung in English proved hugely popular with singers and audiences alike.

The libretto The bedrock of Italian ‘opera seria’ throughout the middle of the eighteenth century was the prolific series of opera texts by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). Over eight hundred operas from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were settings of Metastasio, and his Artaserse, which was originally written in 1729 and first set by Leonardo Vinci the following year, was subsequently set by over ninety composers, including Gluck (Milan, 1741) and J. C. Bach (Turin, 1760) – in both cases, incidentally, the composer’s very first opera – in locations ranging from Padua to Stockholm. Arne was probably already familiar with Hasse’s setting, which had been performed in London in 1754.

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Artax CD booklet.indd 15 18/12/2020 14:21:26 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 13 21/12/2020 17:58 The English translation of the libretto for Artaxerxes was published anonymously, but is known to have been the work of Arne himself. Charles Burney was rather damning of this aspect of Arne’s work, writing that “the number of his unfortunate pieces for the stage was prodigious; yet none of them were condemned or neglected for want of merit in the music, but words, of which the doctor was too frequently guilty of being the author.” In the preface to the printed libretto, the author attempts to deflect criticism by asserting that it is his “first attempt of the kind”, but in truth the text is not without its merits, and generally serves the music effectively.

The first performance Artaxerxes received its first performance on 2 February 1762, with a cast led by Charlotte Brent as Mandane and Ferdinando Tenducci as Arbaces. Charlotte Brent (1735-1802) had received a rapturous reception at her début as Polly in The Beggar’s Opera in 1759. She was not only Arne’s long-standing pupil but also, since 1755, his mistress, so it is not surprising that she was given much of the opera’s most virtuosic writing. The great castrato Tenducci (c.1735-90) had come to London in 1758, and was to stay in Britain for almost thirty years. Unusually for a castrato, he married, but his bride’s family was so furious that they promptly kidnapped her and had her illustrious bridegroom thrown into prison. According to Charles Burney, Tenducci’s performance in Artaxerxes “had a rapid effect upon the public taste, and stimulated to imitation all that were possessed of good ears and flexible voices”, while in Tobias Smollett’s 1771 novelThe Expedition of Humphry Clinker the heroine Lydia Melford describes hearing “the famous Tenducci, a thing from Italy – it looks for all the world like a man, though they say it is not. The voice to be sure is neither man’s nor woman’s but it is more melodious than either; and it warbled so divinely that while I listened I really thought myself in paradise.”

The title role, actually one of the smaller roles in the piece, was taken by another castrato, Nicolò Peretti, while the three remaining roles were taken by English singers, led by John

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Artax CD booklet.indd 16 18/12/2020 14:21:26 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 14 21/12/2020 17:58 Beard (1717-91) in the role of Artabanes. Earlier in his career Beard had worked extensively with Handel, creating roles in ten of his operas and the vast majority of his English oratorios, and by 1762 he had also become the manager of the Covent Garden theatre; it was his decision to discontinue the practice of allowing half-price entry for the third act that provoked riots during a performance of Artaxerxes, which wrecked the auditorium and caused damage worth £2,000. The cast was completed by a Miss Thomas in the role of Semira and George Mattocks as Rimenes.

The music In keeping with the Italian style on which the opera was founded, Artaxerxes is very much aria-dominated, with twenty-six of the twenty-eight numbers being solo arias. There are also, however, significant divergences from the Italianate model, most notably in the relative brevity and formal variety of the arias, almost all of which eschew the ‘da capo’ form so beloved of Handel and his contemporaries. Indeed, it is important to note that Artaxerxes dates from the same year as Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice – that is to say, three years after Handel’s death (although twenty years since his last Italian opera) and only five years before Mozart’s first opera – and in keeping with Gluck’s masterpiece Arne’s work is actually more notable for its melodic beauty and emotional directness than for its vocal pyrotechnics.

Artaxerxes is also remarkable for the richness of its scoring. Arne had been the first English composer to include clarinets in his orchestra, and he uses wind instruments with great imagination and variety throughout the opera. One of the most exquisite pieces of scoring, however, is for strings alone. In Arbaces’ “O too lovely, too unkind”, violins are muted and cellos and basses plucked, while divided violas weave a sustained backdrop to the vocal line in a manner that we might now consider to be quintessentially Mozartian. Indeed, this aria is merely the strongest of a number of suggestions throughout the score of Arne’s influence on the young Mozart.

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Nineteenth century revivals following the Covent Garden fire of 1808 used a new version of the opera created in 1813 by Sir Henry Bishop, Covent Garden’s musical director from 1810 to 1824, for which he wrote new, heavily cut recitatives and a finale. These, though, made scarcely any attempt to recreate an eighteenth century idiom, and are stylistically far removed from Arne’s surviving work. This is not that surprising; Bishop would probably not have thought twice about writing in his own contemporary style, living as he did in an age when it was still rare to perform ‘old’ music, and the half century that separates his work from Arne’s original had witnessed not only the complete works of Mozart but also all but one of Beethoven’s symphonies.

For the 2009 Royal Opera production of Artaxerxes and this recording, I composed new recitatives, including the four which Arne set with orchestral accompaniment, which are hopefully comparable to the style of the early 1760s. This was a time-consuming but not especially arduous process, as recitative was a fairly basic and standardised form which evolved little between the death of Handel and the composition of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas. Considerably more skilful is Duncan Druce’s new setting ‘after Arne’ of the finale, complete with the duet passages prescribed in the libretto, which enables this remarkable and beautiful opera to be presented in a fully resolved and complete dramatic form.

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DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Artaxerxes Prince and afterwards King of Persia; friend to Arbaces, and in love with Semira

Artabanes Generalissimo, and favourite of the Royal Family; father to Arbaces and Semira

Arbaces Friend of Artaxerxes, in love with Mandane

Rimenes A General of the Army, and confidant of Artabanes

Mandane Sister to Artaxerxes, in love with Arbaces

Semira Sister to Arbaces, in love with Artaxerxes

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Artax CD booklet.indd 20 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 18 21/12/2020 17:58 THE ARGUMENT

Xerxes, King of Persia, having been discomfited by the Greeks, his power began greatly to decline; which Artabanes, Commander of the Royal Guards, perceiving, he entertained the hopes of sacrificing to his ambition not only Xerxes, but all the Royal Family, and by that method to ascend the throne of Persia; for which purpose, availing himself of the advantage which his familiarity and friendship with the King gave him, he entered, at dead of night, the apartment of Xerxes, and slew him.

He afterwards so irritated the young Princes against one another, that Artaxerxes, one of the said Princes, caused his brother Darius to be slain, believing him the parricide, by the artful insinuations of Artabanes.

Now nothing was wanting to complete his treasonous designs but the death of Artaxerxes; which Artabanes having prepared, though by various accidents delayed (which furnish the episodical ornaments of this drama), he could not accomplish it, the treason being discovered, and Artaxerxes preserved. Which discovery and preservation form the principal action of the ensuing drama. [Justinius, Book 3, Chapter 1]

The action is represented in and near the Palace of the Kings of Persia, in the city of Susa.

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Act One Arbaces is in love with Princess Mandane, on account of which he has been banished from Persia by her father, King Xerxes. The two lovers bid a tender farewell, but before Arbaces can leave the palace grounds he is accosted by his father Artabanes, the general of the King’s army, who informs him that he has just assassinated Xerxes. He gives Arbaces his bloody sword to dispose of. Artabanes then convinces Xerxes’ younger son, Artaxerxes, that his elder brother Darius is guilty of the crime, and before his guilt can be disproved Artabanes has Darius executed.

Semira arrives too late with news that Darius is innocent, and that the real assassin has been discovered in possession of the murder weapon. Everyone is astonished when Arbaces is led in under armed guard. He maintains his innocence, but when he refuses to reveal the truth he is presumed guilty.

Act Two Artabanes urges his son to escape and lead a rebellion, but Arbaces refuses. Instead, Artabanes and Rimenes, a captain in the army, plot to kill Artaxerxes themselves, with Semira offered as Rimenes’ reward. When Arbaces stands trial Artaxerxes, torn by indecision, places his fate in the hands of Artabanes, who condemns his son to death; Artaxerxes, though, permits a stay of execution. Mandane and Semira berate Artabanes and Artaxerxes respectively for their failure to save Arbaces.

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Artax CD booklet.indd 22 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 20 21/12/2020 17:58 Act Three Artaxerxes comes to Arbaces’ cell and orders him to escape. When Artabanes and Rimenes then arrive and find the cell empty, they assume that Arbaces has already been executed, and resolve to take revenge by poisoning Artaxerxes as he takes his coronation oath. Mandane, meanwhile, is confronted by Arbaces, and struggles to resist her feelings for him.

At his coronation Artaxerxes is about to drink from the poisoned cup, but is interrupted by news that Arbaces has single-handedly quelled a rebellion led by Rimenes. Arbaces enters, and Artaxerxes offers him the cup with which to pledge his innocence. Horrified, Artabanes confesses to his crimes. Artaxerxes spares his life but banishes him from the kingdom, and the two couples – Arbaces and Mandane, Artaxerxes and Semira – are united.

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1 Overture (Poco più che andante – Larghetto – Gavotta)

ACT ONE Scene I An inner garden belonging to the Palace of the King of Persia. Moonlight. MANDANE and ARBACES.

2 Recitative MANDANE: Still silence reigns around, suspicion sleeps, And unperceiv’d, you may escape these walls.

ARBACES: Adieu my Love; O think on thy Arbaces.

MANDANE: Yet stay, sweet youth, a few short minutes stay...

ARBACES: Ador’d Mandane, see, the dawn appears!

3 No. 1, Duettino MANDANE, ARBACES: Fair Aurora, prithee stay; O retard, unwelcome day: Think what anguish rends my breast, Thus caressing, thus caress’d, From the idol of my heart Forc’d at thy approach to part.

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Artax CD booklet.indd 24 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 22 21/12/2020 17:58 4 Recitative ARBACES: Alas, thou know’st that for my love to thee, The King, great Xerxes, thy too rigid Father, Has banish’d me from the Palace; should he hear That in defiance of his stern command I have presum’d to scale this garden wall, How little wou’d a lover’s plea avail, When thou, his daughter, couldst not move his pity.

MANDANE: Thy noble father, mighty Artabanes, Disposes at his will the heart of Xerxes, And the young Prince, my brother Artaxerxes, brought up with thee in worthy emulation, Honours thy worth, and boasts thy valu’d friendship; Their interest may soften his resentment.

ARBACES: Weak are their efforts, while his kingly pride Disdains to rank a Princess with a subject.

MANDANE: My spirits sink, my heart forgets to beat; I lack the fortitude to bear thy loss. And must we part? Then all good angels guard thee.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 25

Artax CD booklet.indd 25 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 23 21/12/2020 17:58 5 No. 2, Air MANDANE: Adieu, thou lovely youth, Let hope thy fears remove; Preserve thy faith and truth, But never doubt my love. (Exit.)

Scene II

6 Recitative ARBACES: O cruel parting! How can I survive? Divided thus from all that’s sweet and fair, From her for whom alone I live.

(Enter ARTABANES.)

ARTABANES: My son, Arbaces.

ARBACES: Father!

ARTABANES: Give me thy sword.

ARBACES: Sir, I obey.

ARTABANES: Here, take mine.

26 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 26 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 24 21/12/2020 17:58 ARBACES: ’Tis drench’d in blood!

ARTABANES: Fly, hide it from all eyes; Xerxes the King this daring arm hath slain.

ARBACES: Forbid it, Heav’n!

ARTABANES: O much lov’d son! Thy treatment was the spur to my revenge... For thee I’m guilty.

ARBACES: Would I had ne’er been born.

ARTABANES: Let not weak scruples thwart my great design; Perhaps Arbaces shall be King of Persia.

ARBACES: I’m all confusion...

ARTABANES: No more – be gone.

ARBACES: O fatal day! Unhappy lost Arbaces.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 27

Artax CD booklet.indd 27 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 25 21/12/2020 17:58 7 No. 3, Air ARBACES: Amid a thousand racking woes, I pant, I tremble, and I feel Cold blood from ev’ry vein distil, And clog my lab’ring heart. (Exit.)

Scene III

8 Recitative ARTABANES: Be firm, my heart. In the pursuit of guilt, The first advance admits not a retreat: The Royal blood, to the last hateful drop, Must then be shed. Conscience, thy checks are vain... The Prince appears – now art’s my only refuge.

(Enter ARTAXERXES, RIMENES and Guards.)

ARTAXERXES: Dear Artabanes, glad I meet thee here; Disastrous Fate, yonder my father lies Savagely murder’d!

ARTABANES: Ah! My ill-boding fears! Unsated thirst of Empire! Alas, will nothing but a father’s blood Allay thy heat, and quench thy raging fever?

ARTAXERXES: Well I conceive... my faithless cruel brother, Darius.

28 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 28 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 26 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTABANES: Who but he at dead of night could penetrate The Palace? Who approach the Royal bed? Besides, his known ambition...

ARTAXERXES: O, if here lives a heart that calls me friend Or feels compassion for his slaughter’d King, Quick, let him bring the traitor to our presence.

ARTABANES: That welcome task be mine – Guards, follow me.

ARTAXERXES: Yet stay... Darius is the son of Xerxes.

ARTABANES: Who kills the father, is no more a son.

9 No. 4, Air ARTABANES: Behold, on Lethe’s dismal strand Thy father’s troubled spirit stand! In his face, what grief profound: See, he rolls his haggard eyes; Hark! Revenge! Revenge he cries, And points to his still bleeding wound: Obey the call, revenge his death; And calm his soul that gave thee breath. (Exit with Guards.)

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 29

Artax CD booklet.indd 29 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 27 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene IV Enter SEMIRA.

10 Recitative SEMIRA: Stay, Artaxerxes, stay.

ARTAXERXES: Adieu, Semira.

SEMIRA: And dost thou fly me? Go then, cruel Prince, No more shall ill-tim’d fondness importune thee.

ARTAXERXES: Beauteous Semira, should I longer stay, There’s such a siren sweetness in thy voice ’Twould lull me to forget my filial duty.

SEMIRA: Away, ungrateful.

11 No. 5, Air ARTAXERXES: Fair Semira, lovely maid, Cease in pity to upbraid My oppress’d but constant heart: Full sufficient are the woes Which my cruel stars impose; Heav’n, alas, has done its part! (Exit.)

30 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 30 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 28 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene V

12 Recitative SEMIRA: I fear some dread disaster... say, Rimenes: What means this strange confusion in the Prince?

RIMENES: Xerxes is slain. Suspicion points the finger at Darius; And Artaxerxes bears a dreadful conflict ’Twixt filial duty to revenge his father And brotherly compassion for Darius.

SEMIRA: O fatal deed! The effect of wild ambition; Heav’n knows if Artaxerxes’ life be safe.

RIMENES: Let Fate be busy in destructive slaughter; We blest with love, and seated on the shore, Will view the destin’d shipwreck.

SEMIRA: Think not that love can find a place to enter When the sad heart’s surrounded with misfortunes; Leave me, Rimenes, to my troubled thoughts.

RIMENES: Your web of scorn is not so closely woven But I can see between each subtle thread.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 31

Artax CD booklet.indd 31 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 29 21/12/2020 17:58 Yet, born to love, undaunted I’ll pursue thee: Since hope inspires my breast, what you deny, Ungrateful maid, kind fancy shall supply!

13 No. 6, Air RIMENES: When real joy we miss, ’Tis some degree of bliss To enjoy ideal pleasure, And dream of hidden treasure.

The soldier dreams of wars, And conquers without scars; The sailor in his sleep With safety ploughs the deep:

So I through fancy’s aid Enjoy my heav’nly maid, And blest with thee and love Am greater far than Jove. (Exit.)

Scene VI SEMIRA alone.

14 Recitative SEMIRA: Ye Gods, protectors of the Persian Empire, Preserve my Artaxerxes. Yet if he be blest, Semira’s state is wretched: Xerxes dead, This Prince will mount the throne; Belov’d by me, and rais’d above my hopes,

32 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 32 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 30 21/12/2020 17:58 The hand which he entreated when a subject When Sovereign of Persia he’ll disdain.

15 No. 7, Air SEMIRA: How hard is the fate, How desp’rate the state, When virtue and honour excite To suffer distress, Contented to bless The object in whom I delight.

Yet midst all the woes My soul undergoes Through virtue’s too rigid decree, I’ll scorn to complain If the force of my pain Awaken his pity for me. (Exit.)

Scene VII The Palace. Enter MANDANE.

16 Recitative MANDANE: Whither do I fly? Ah, hapless maid! Thus, in one fatal instant, To lose a brother, a father and a lover!

(Enter ARTAXERXES.)

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 33

Artax CD booklet.indd 33 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 31 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTAXERXES: Alas, Mandane!

MANDANE: Does Darius live? Or are thy guilty hands Imbru’d in brother’s blood?

ARTAXERXES: Fain would I shun that deed, Which to prevent, I’ve search’d throughout the Palace For Artabanes and Darius – But all in vain.

MANDANE: See, Artabanes comes.

Scene VIII Enter ARTABANES.

ARTAXERXES: My friend!

ARTABANES: Sir, all is accomplished.

ARTAXERXES: Ha! Speak, explain.

ARTABANES: Your father’s death’s reveng’d,

34 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 34 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 32 21/12/2020 17:58 Darius is slain, and Artaxerxes now Is Persia’s King.

ARTAXERXES: O Gods!

MANDANE: O dire misfortune!

ARTABANES: Why that deep sigh, my Liege? ’Twas your command...

ARTAXERXES: Alas, ’tis true, the guilt is only mine!

ARTABANES: What guilt, my Sovereign? ’Twas merely justice to your murder’d father.

Scene IX Enter SEMIRA.

SEMIRA: O Artaxerxes!

ARTAXERXES: Say, fair Semira, why this seeming joy?

SEMIRA: Darius is not guilty of the murder.

MANDANE: What do I hear? ARNE / ARTAXERXES 35

Artax CD booklet.indd 35 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 33 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTAXERXES: I’m struck with double horror.

SEMIRA: The assassin is secur’d.

ARTAXERXES: O quick, proceed.

SEMIRA: Your watchful sentinels, when he had leap’d The garden wall, o’ertook him as he fled. His deep confusion, pallid countenance And sword yet reeking with the crimson blood Strongly proclaim him guilty.

ARTAXERXES: But the name?

SEMIRA: At my request to know it, All hung their heads in silence.

ARTABANES: (Alas, it is my son.)

ARTAXERXES: Must Artaxerxes then ascend the throne Distain’d with brother’s blood? O, I shall never taste of peace again. Quick, bring this traitor; that unbounded rage

36 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 36 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 34 21/12/2020 17:58 May execute the vengeance he deserves. Hold, Artabanes, dear Mandane, stay. Semira, leave me not in this distress... Where is my friend Arbaces?

ARTABANES: He was forbid the Court by Royal Xerxes, For his presumptuous love of fair Mandane.

ARTAXERXES: Fly, bring him to my arms – I here absolve him.

Scene X Enter RIMENES with ARBACES prisoner.

RIMENES: Who in this Royal presence would believe Arbaces to be guilty?

ARTABANES: How!

ARTAXERXES: My friend!

ARTABANES: My son!

SEMIRA: My brother!

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 37

Artax CD booklet.indd 37 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 35 21/12/2020 17:58 MANDANE: Oh ye Gods, my lover!

ARTAXERXES: Would in the pangs of death I’d met my friend, Rather than thus in fetters like a traitor.

ARBACES: I’m innocent.

ARTAXERXES: O, make but that appear And doubly ’twill endear thee to my love.

ARBACES: I am not guilty, that’s my only plea.

ARTABANES: (This prudent caution answers to my wish.)

MANDANE: But your resentment ’gainst the King...

ARBACES: ... was just.

ARTAXERXES: Didst thou not fly?

ARBACES: I did.

38 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 38 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 36 21/12/2020 17:58 MANDANE: This thy reserve...

ARBACES: ... is requisite.

RIMENES: This bloody sword...

ARBACES: ... was in the scabbard when you took me prisoner.

ARTABANES: And can’st thou yet deny the cruel deed?

ARBACES: Great Sir, I still assert my innocence.

ARTABANES: Audacious boy! Thus obstinate in ill, Thy sight’s my torment, and this deed my shame.

ARBACES: And does my father join in my destruction?

17 No. 8, Air ARTABANES: Thy father! Away, I renounce the soft claim; Thou spot on my honour, thou blast to my fame, Let justice the traitor to punishment bring; His father he lost when he murder’d his King. (Exit.)

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 39

Artax CD booklet.indd 39 18/12/2020 14:21:28 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 37 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene XI

18 Recitative ARBACES: Ye cruel Gods, what crime have I committed To draw relentless vengeance on my head? Semira! Sister! Hear me with compassion.

19 No. 9, Air SEMIRA: Acquit thee of this foul offence, Return with spotless innocence; Then shall my hapless brother see That never sister lov’d like me. (Exit.)

Scene XII

20 Recitative ARBACES: Appearance, I must own, is strong against me, But truth is on my side: I’m innocent.

ARTAXERXES: Pray Heav’n thou may’st; but till the Law decide, You must remain a prisoner. (Exit.)

40 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 40 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 38 21/12/2020 17:58 ARBACES: Ah, dear Rimenes, pity my hard fate... My friend!

RIMENES: I am no traitor’s friend. Adieu. (Exit.)

Scene XIII

ARBACES: Beauteous Mandane, turn at least and hear me.

MANDANE: Away! You sue in vain.

ARBACES: O stay, I charge thee... Think on thy former love.

MANDANE: ’Tis turned to hate.

ARBACES: And you believe me guilty?

MANDANE: I’m convinc’d.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 41

Artax CD booklet.indd 41 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 39 21/12/2020 17:58 21 No. 10, Air ARBACES: O too lovely, too unkind; If my lips no credit find, Pierce my breast, my heart shall prove Strong in virtue, firm in love; Guiltless, wretched, left forlorn, And worse than murder’d by thy scorn. (Exit under guard.)

Scene XIV MANDANE alone.

22 Accompanied Recitative MANDANE: Dear and beloved shade of my dead father, Thee I invoke to spirit up my rage, Lest fond credulity too strongly plead, And turn my purpose from a just revenge; For, oh, I feel the tyrant love within, He rends my heart, he struggles for Arbaces; Help me, kind Gods, to tear away his image.

23 No. 11, Air MANDANE: Fly, soft ideas, fly; That neither tear nor sigh My virtue may betray. Nature’s great call, That governs all, A daughter must obey.

42 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 42 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 40 21/12/2020 17:58 Alas, my soul denies To hear revenge’s cries. Dare not, fond heart, To take his part, But drive his form away. (Exit.)

ACT TWO Scene I The royal apartments. Enter ARTAXERXES and ARTABANES.

24 Recitative ARTAXERXES: Guards, speed ye to the tower, And instantly conduct Arbaces to me.

ARTABANES: Good my Lord, Think not the partial fondness of a father Has urg’d this council.

ARTAXERXES: No; ’tis justice dictates; He still persists that he is innocent, And his fair truth was ne’er ’till now suspected: I will withdraw. O, reconcile the safety of your son With your King’s peace, and the honour of his throne.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 43

Artax CD booklet.indd 43 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 41 21/12/2020 17:58 25 No. 12, Air ARTAXERXES: In infancy, our hopes and fears Were to each other known, And friendship in our riper years Has twin’d our heart in one. O clear him then from this offence, Thy love, thy duty prove; Restore him with that innocence Which first inspir’d my love. (Exit.)

Scene II

26 Recitative ARTABANES: So far my great resolve succeeds.

(Enter ARBACES under guard.)

Approach, Arbaces... And you, his guards, in the next chamber wait. (Exeunt Guards.)

ARBACES: My father!

ARTABANES: Ever watchful to preserve thee, I artfully have gain’d from Artaxerxes The liberty to question thee;

44 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 44 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 42 21/12/2020 17:58 Take then this fortunate occasion, And by a secret way which I will show thee Delude the guards, and fly.

ARBACES: Sir, my escape Would rise in evidence to prove me guilty.

ARTABANES: ’Tis folly all! I give thee liberty; From the King’s wrath I snatch thee, and perhaps The public voice shall call thee to the throne.

ARBACES: What said you, Sir?

ARTABANES: Long have you known The people’s hatred of the Royal blood. Away! The sight of you will fire the mut’nous troops, Whose leaders to your interest are sworn.

ARBACES: I turn a rebel! Horror’s in the thought... Your pardon, Sir... Is this a father’s counsel? Guards, enter quick, bring me again my chains – Conduct me to the prison.

ARTABANES: I burn with rage.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 45

Artax CD booklet.indd 45 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 43 21/12/2020 17:58 ARBACES: Yet calm this transport; think on my affliction. Sir... father... turn... O grant one kind adieu.

ARTABANES: Unworthy boy! I’m deaf to thy request.

27 No. 13, Air ARBACES: Disdainful you fly me, In anger exclaim; All comfort deny me, And murder my fame.

No grief can the heart To pity incline, That bears not a part In sorrow like mine.

Nature’s tender plea is vain; Welcome then my chains again.

O rigour unjust! O counsel accurst! Ambition ill-plac’d; My virtue disgrac’d: The pains I endure, Death only can cure. (Exit with the Guards.)

46 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 46 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 44 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene III Enter RIMENES.

28 Recitative RIMENES: Why, my dear friend, so pensive, so inactive?

ARTABANES: My wayward son, that bar to my ambition, At once rejects both liberty and crown.

RIMENES: Let us away, and force him from the tower.

ARTABANES: The present time may better be employ’d If Artaxerxes perish by our hands... Let not my friend betray me.

RIMENES: I, my Lord! Forbid it, gratitude! My abject state Cast me below the notice of mankind, ’Till your great pow’r exalted me to honour.

ARTABANES: Small recompense for thy good services: But should kind Fortune smile on this attempt, Then judge if Artabanes loves his friend.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 47

Artax CD booklet.indd 47 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 45 21/12/2020 17:58 RIMENES: My hand, my heart, are guided by your will.

ARTABANES: I have observ’d thy passion for Semira... Spare the confusion; and let this great instance Prove my esteem – Semira shall be thine.

RIMENES: Thanks, gracious Sir – my joy is past expression.

ARTABANES (seeing SEMIRA): Come hither, daughter.

Scene IV Enter SEMIRA.

ARTABANES: In this valiant chief, Behold thy lord and husband.

SEMIRA: Cruel sound! O Sir reflect... is this a time for nuptials, When my unhappy brother...

ARTABANES: Peace, no more. ’Tis my command... reply not, but obey. (Exit.)

48 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 48 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 46 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene V

SEMIRA: I tremble... Hear me, Sir... O, if you love me, Prevent this marriage.

RIMENES: Sure Semira mocks me?

SEMIRA: Though by constraint you seize my helpless hand, My heart disdains the brutal violence.

RIMENES: Give me thy beauty and reserve thy heart; Thou keep’st the worst, I gain the better part.

29 No. 14, Air RIMENES: To sigh and complain Alike I disdain, Contented my wish to enjoy: I scorn to reflect On a lady’s neglect, Or barter my peace for a toy.

In love as in war I laugh at a scar, And if my proud enemy yield, The joy that remains Is to lead her in chains, And glean the rich spoils of the field. (Exit.) ARNE / ARTAXERXES 49

Artax CD booklet.indd 49 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 47 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene VI

30 Recitative SEMIRA: How many links to dire misfortune’s chain Are woven in one day!

(Enter MANDANE.)

Stay, dear Mandane... Why this haste?

MANDANE: I attend the Council.

SEMIRA: I’ll too attend, if ought within my pow’r May help my brother.

MANDANE: Our views are different; thou desir’st to save him, I seek his death.

SEMIRA: Is this a language for Arbaces’ lover?

MANDANE: It well becomes the daughter of dead Xerxes.

50 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 50 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 48 21/12/2020 17:58 SEMIRA: Away, thou cruel maid! Enforce his crime, and urge his speedy death. But first prepare your heart, and quite erase The soft remembrance of your former passion, The tender hopes and fears, warm vows of truth, Fond sighs exchang’d, and, last, the sweet idea Of that dear form which first inspir’d your love.

MANDANE: Ah barbarous Semira, thus to wake My guilty pity, rebel to my duty!

31 No. 15, Air MANDANE: If o’er the cruel tyrant love A conquest I believ’d, The flattering error cease to prove; O let me be deceiv’d.

Forbear to fan the gentle flame Which love did first create; What was my pride is now my shame, And must be turn’d to hate.

Then call not to my wav’ring mind The weakness of my heart, Which, ah, I feel too much inclin’d To take a traitor’s part! (Exit.)

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 51

Artax CD booklet.indd 51 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 49 21/12/2020 17:58 CD 2

Scene VII SEMIRA alone.

1 Recitative SEMIRA: Which fatal evil shall I first oppose? My princess, my brother, this detested lover, The King, my father – all are enemies; And each attacks me in some tender part: While I exert my pow’r against the one, The others rush on my defenceless breast.

2 No. 16, Air SEMIRA: If the river’s swelling waves Overflow their usual bed, Scarce th’affrighted peasant saves From the flood his homely shed.

Though he stop one open shore, Where the waters swiftly glide, In an hundred places more Rushes in the impetuous tide. (Exit.)

52 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 52 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 50 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene VIII A Hall of Royal Council with a throne, seats on the sides for the Grandees of the Kingdom, a small table and chair on the right hand of the throne, ARTAXERXES preceded by Guards, afterwards by the Nobles, follow’d by MANDANE, SEMIRA, ARTABANES and RIMENES.

3 Recitative ARTAXERXES: Ye solid pillars of the Persian Empire, Behold me, fated to sustain the cares Of my paternal throne, and much I’m griev’d That my lov’d father’s death so heavy lies Upon my absent friend; but since Arbaces Denies the accusation, let the father, Whose virtues have endear’d him to our favour, Be the son’s judge to cast him or acquit him; In him is vested all our regal pow’r.

MANDANE: In him? Does friendship so prevail o’er duty?

ARTAXERXES: Not so, Mandane, for his loyal father Has double reason for severity: I ought to vindicate the death of Xerxes; But if Arbaces be the criminal, His father with more rigour will revenge His monarch’s death, and his own public shame.

ARTABANES: Ah, Sir, what trial?

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 53

Artax CD booklet.indd 53 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 51 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTAXERXES: Worthy of thy virtue – If any think me partial, let him speak.

RIMENES: This silence is a gen’ral approbation.

SEMIRA: My brother comes.

MANDANE: Ah me!

ARTAXERXES: Give me your attention. (He ascends the throne; the Grandees sit.)

MANDANE: (Now prudence guide the reins of my affection; Cease, busy heart, to flutter in my breast.)

Scene IX Enter ARBACES in chains, guarded.

ARBACES: Am I so much the hatred of all Persia That it unites to witness my misfortune? My Sovereign!

ARTAXERXES: O Arbaces, call me friend;

54 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 54 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 52 21/12/2020 17:58 For till thy crime is prov’d, that title’s thine. But as a name so tender ill becomes The impartial judge, thy most unhappy cause I have assign’d to worthy Artabanes.

ARBACES: My father judge?

ARTAXERXES: Yes, he.

ARBACES: I’m chill’d with horror.

ARTABANES: Arbaces, in this presence thou appear’st To be the murderer of royal Xerxes: The circumstances urg’d are these: That thou hast entertain’d presumptuous love Of this most honour’d Princess; For which, by Xerxes banish’d from the Court, You sought revenge, and found it in his death.

ARBACES: Nay more: the bloody sword, the time, the place, And flight, conspire to fix the guilt on me. And yet my heart is free; I’m innocent.

ARTABANES: Demonstrate that, and so appease the wrath Of this offended Princess.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 55

Artax CD booklet.indd 55 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 53 21/12/2020 17:58 MANDANE: Whether he plead or not, He equally is guilty. Where is justice? Is this the father that should vindicate His murder’d King, and his own public shame?

ARBACES: Cruel Mandane, does thy voice condemn me?

MANDANE: (Bear up, my heart.)

ARTABANES: Your just resentment, Princess, Spurs on my lazy virtue. Let Persia then, in Artabanes’ rigour, Record his justice, and his loyalty. My son I here condemn... (He signs.) Arbaces dies.

MANDANE: Oh Gods!

ARTAXERXES: Suspend a while this rash decree.

ARTABANES: ’Tis sign’d, my Liege... I have fulfill’d my duty.

ARTAXERXES: Unnatural sentence!

56 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 56 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 54 21/12/2020 17:58 SEMIRA: O inhuman father!

MANDANE: Alas, my tears betray me.

ARBACES: Weeps Mandane In pity of my cruel destiny?

MANDANE: Pleasure may start a tear, as well as grief.

ARTABANES: Now I have finish’d the stern judge’s part, Permit, O King, the feelings of a father. Pardon, my son, the effect of tyrant duty; Suffer with patience, and remember this: The worst of ev’ry evil is the fear.

ARBACES: My patience, Sir, at last begins to leave me: Barbarous Father... (Ah, I lose myself!)... Adieu. (Going.)

ARTABANES: (I freeze.)

MANDANE: I die.

ARBACES: Stay, rash Arbaces! (Returning.)

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 57

Artax CD booklet.indd 57 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 55 21/12/2020 17:58 Where would’st thou go? Ah, Sir, forgive your son; Behold me at your feet. Excuse the transports of my frantic grief; Shed all my blood, ’tis yours – I’ll not complain, But kiss the honour’d hand that sign’d my death.

ARTABANES: Enough, arise... Thou hast but too much reason to lament. But know... (O Gods!)... take one last embrace, and part.

4 No. 17, Air ARBACES: By that belov’d embrace, By this my fond adieu, Deplore my hapless case, Condemn’d, alas, by you! Appease my love, my truth commend, Yourself preserve, my King defend. My sentence I obey, To filial duty true; And scarce have pow’r to say A long and last adieu! (Exit under guard.)

Scene X

5 Recitative MANDANE: Ah me, at poor Arbaces’ parting, I feel the stroke of death!

58 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 58 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 56 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTABANES: I hope Mandane’s wrath will now subside; For I have sacrific’d my only son To satisfy her vengeance.

MANDANE: Savage, no more... Avoid my presence; dare not to view the light Of sun or stars, but hide thy cruel head Within the deepest bowels of the earth.

ARTABANES: Is then my virtue...

MANDANE: Silence, inhuman!

ARTABANES: Did not Mandane’s rage excite my justice?

MANDANE: The daughter ought to vindicate the father; But thou, a father, should’st have sav’d thy son.

6 No. 18, Air MANDANE: Monster, away From cheerful day! To the barren desert fly; Paths explore Where lions roar, And devouring tigers lie.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 59

Artax CD booklet.indd 59 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 57 21/12/2020 17:58 Though for food They wade in blood, All to save their young agree; Ev’ry creature Fierce by nature Harmless is compar’d to thee. (Exit.)

Scene XI

7 Recitative ARTAXERXES: See, lov’d Semira, How Heav’n conspires the ruin of Arbaces!

SEMIRA: Inhuman tyrant! You first destroy your friend, And then bewail him.

ARTAXERXES: I to thy father’s will his life committed. How was I then a tyrant? All Persia knows my friendship for Arbaces, And my faithful love to thee.

SEMIRA: I thought you once A tender lover and a gen’rous friend;

60 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 60 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 58 21/12/2020 17:58 But in one instant you have prov’d yourself in friendship false, and treacherous in love. (Exit.)

Scene XII

ARTAXERXES: O Artabanes...

ARTABANES: Lament not, Sir, but leave complaints to me; I am the most unhappy of mankind.

ARTAXERXES: Thy woe must needs be great, When mine is insupportable. (Exit.)

Scene XIII ARTABANES alone.

8 Accompanied recitative ARTABANES: At last my soul has room to indulge its grief! What racking thoughts surround the guilty breast... O my dear son, forgive the piercing woes Which my foul deeds inflict upon thy youth: I come to save thee from the jaws of death, And pay thy virtues with a kingly throne.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 61

Artax CD booklet.indd 61 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 59 21/12/2020 17:58 9 No. 19, Air ARTABANES: Thou, like the glorious sun, Thy splendid course shalt run. What though the night Obscure his light, When prison’d in the West; The day returns, Again he burns, The God of Day confest. (Exit.)

ACT THREE

Scene I A Prison. ARBACES in a melancholy posture.

10 No. 20, Arietta ARBACES: Why is death for ever late To conclude a wretch’s woe? Those who live in happy state Feel too soon the untimely blow.

(Enter ARTAXERXES.)

11 Recitative ARTAXERXES: Arbaces!

62 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 62 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 60 21/12/2020 17:58 ARBACES: Gracious Heav’n, what’s this I see! Does royal Artaxerxes deign to visit The wretch Arbaces, in this horrid gloom!

ARTAXERXES: Pity and friendship brought me here to save thee.

ARBACES: To save me?

ARTAXERXES: Yes. That secret passage leads To life and liberty; then quickly fly – Remember Artaxerxes, and be happy.

ARBACES: Your pardon, Sir, the world esteems me guilty – Then let me die; your honour, Sir, requires it. Happy my exit, having once preserv’d My Sov’reign’s life, and now his spotless honour.

ARTAXERXES: Such noble sentiments can ne’er proceed From guilty minds. Belov’d Arbaces fly – As friend I beg thee to preserve thyself; But if that fails, as sov’reign I command thee.

ARBACES: In gratitude to thy exalted friendship, I’ll quit this scene of horror and despair. But oh! thus exil’d, I shall only fly Restless to tread the paths of misery. ARNE / ARTAXERXES 63

Artax CD booklet.indd 63 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 61 21/12/2020 17:58 12 No. 21, Air ARBACES: Water parted from the sea May increase the river’s tide; To the bubbling fount may flee, Or through fertile valleys glide; Yet in search of lost repose, Doom’d, like me, forlorn to roam, Still it murmurs as it flows, Till it reach its native home. (Exit.)

Scene II ARTAXERXES alone.

13 Recitative ARTAXERXES: That face, secure in conscious innocence, Defies the charge of guilt. Affliction’s veil Can never quite eclipse the inward light That from a noble soul darts forth its rays, When in the countenance the heart is seen.

14 No. 22, Air ARTAXERXES: Though oft a cloud with envious shade Conceals the face of day, The sun is still in flames array’d, His beams immortal not decay’d. Soon the gloomy veil retires; He darts each pow’rful ray, And Light and Heat inspires. (Exit.)

64 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 64 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 62 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene III Enter ARTABANES with a train of conspirators.

15 Recitative ARTABANES: My son, Arbaces... where art thou retir’d? Sure he should hear my voice... What ho, Arbaces! O Heav’n! Guards, watch the entrance of the prison Till I can find my son. O unhappy father! My son I seek in vain. My blood grows chill; I fear... I doubt... perhaps in...

(Enter RIMENES.)

RIMENES: Artabanes!

ARTABANES: Where is Arbaces?

RIMENES: Is he not with you?

ARTABANES: O cruel Gods! The unfortunate has perish’d.

RIMENES: Suspicion always borders on extremes; And might not Artaxerxes or Mandane, The friend or lover, have procur’d his flight? What strange delay is this! — let’s to our task; Behold the way that leads us to the Palace. ARNE / ARTAXERXES 65

Artax CD booklet.indd 65 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 63 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTABANES: And what great enterprise shall I accomplish, My son being lost?

RIMENES: What! Have you then for nought Secur’d the Royal guards, and I the troops? Determine, Sir; this instant, Artaxerxes Prepares to take the coronation oath; The sacred cup is by your order poison’d. And shall we then so basely...

ARTABANES: O my friend! Arbaces lost, for whom should I engage? He was my life, my soul; to make him King A traitor I became, and hate myself. He gone, despair comes like an envious blast, And chills the ripening fruits of all my crimes.

RIMENES: Thy son Arbaces from thy hand expects The throne, if living; and if dead, revenge.

ARTABANES: That, that alone recalls my fleeting spirit. Lead on, kind friend; my fate depends on thee.

RIMENES: I’ll lead thee on to joyful victory.

66 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 66 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 64 21/12/2020 17:58 16 No. 23, Air RIMENES: O let the danger of a son Excite vindictive ire; The prospect of a kingdom won Should light ambition’s fire. To wounded minds, revenge is balm, With vigour they engage, And sacrifice a pleasing calm To a more pleasing rage. (Exit.)

Scene IV ARTABANES alone.

17 Accompanied recitative ARTABANES: Ye adverse Gods! You have found the only way To quell my vast ambition. Perplexing doubt Whether my son yet lives awakens fear, And the dire image of despair starts up, Unnerves my arm, and checks my daring soul.

18 No. 24, Air ARTABANES: O, much lov’d son, if death Has stol’n the vital breath, I’ll share thy hapless fate. But e’er the dagger drinks my blood, A murder’d King, at Lethe’s flood, The tidings shall relate.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 67

Artax CD booklet.indd 67 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 65 21/12/2020 17:58 Bid Charon cease from toil, And rest upon his oar, ’Till I attain the happy soil Where we shall part no more. (Exit.)

Scene V Mandane’s apartment. Enter MANDANE and SEMIRA.

19 Recitative MANDANE: Perhaps the King releas’d Arbaces.

SEMIRA: No – rather destroy’d him.

MANDANE: How?

SEMIRA: ’Tis known to all; In secret he resign’d his wretched life.

MANDANE: O hapless youth! O tidings worse than death.

SEMIRA: I hope your vengeance now is satisfied – Or would you other victims? Speak!

68 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 68 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 66 21/12/2020 17:58 MANDANE: I cannot. Light cares are often soften’d by complaint, But such as mine arrest the pow’r of speech.

SEMIRA: Ne’er liv’d a heart more lost to sense of pity. All eyes in Persia bewail his hapless fate, But yours are dry.

MANDANE: The deeper my affliction; Small is the grief that vents itself in tears.

SEMIRA: Go, if not satisfied, and feast your eyes Upon the slaughter’d spoils of my dear brother. With secret joy, number his bloody wounds...

MANDANE: Be silent ... Leave me.

SEMIRA: Never; while thou liv’st, I’ll haunt thee like a spirit, and my wrongs Shall dash thy hopes, with bitterness and woe.

MANDANE: You think me cruel, and denounce revenge; Ah! How have I deserv’d thy enmity?

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 69

Artax CD booklet.indd 69 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 67 21/12/2020 17:58 20 No. 25, Air MANDANE: Let not rage, thy bosom firing, Pity’s softer claim remove; Spare a heart that’s just expiring, Forc’d by duty, rack’d by love.

Each ungentle thought suspending, Judge of mine, by thy soft breath; Nor with rancour never ending, Heap fresh sorrows on the oppress’d.

Heav’n, that ev’ry joy has cross’d, Ne’er my wretched state can mend; I, alas, at once have lost father, brother, lover, friend. (Exit.)

Scene VI SEMIRA alone.

21 Recitative SEMIRA: What have I done? Alas, I vainly thought, Dividing grief, to lessen my affliction. These cruel insults vented on Mandane Have pierc’d her breast, and not reliev’d my own.

70 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 70 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 68 21/12/2020 17:58 22 No. 26, Air SEMIRA: ’Tis not true that in our grief Others weeping in distress To our troubles bring relief, Making each misfortune less.

No, when sore oppress’d by Fate, Better ’tis to sigh alone Than support a double weight: Others’ sorrows, and our own. (Exit.)

Scene VII Enter ARBACES.

23 Recitative ARBACES: Nor here my searching eyes can find Mandane. Fain would my heart, before eternal exile, Indulge its fondness with a last adieu. Perhaps this way... but whither do I wander? Rash Man...O heav’nly pow’rs, behold her there! My spirits fail me... yet I’ll speak – Mandane! (Enter MANDANE.)

MANDANE: Ye Pow’rs! Arbaces, and at liberty!

ARBACES: A friendly hand unlock’d my cruel fetters.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 71

Artax CD booklet.indd 71 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 69 21/12/2020 17:58 MANDANE: Ah fly, begone!

ARBACES: How can I part for ever from such beauty?

MANDANE: Perfidious traitor! What wouldst thou with me?

ARBACES: Am I no longer dear to my Mandane?

MANDANE: Thou art become the object of my hate.

ARBACES: Barbarous maid, my death shall end thy scorn! I fly to meet my fate... Adieu – for ever. (Going.)

MANDANE: Hear me, Arbaces.

ARBACES: Ha! What torture more?

MANDANE: I cannot speak.

ARBACES: O Heav’n!

72 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 72 18/12/2020 14:21:29 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 70 21/12/2020 17:58 MANDANE: Fly, save thyself.

ARBACES: What means my Princess? This returning pity...

MANDANE: Does not arise from love... But fly – and live.

24 No. 27, Duetto ARBACES: For thee I live, my dearest; But if I meet disdain, For thee, my dear, I’ll die.

MANDANE: How lovely thou appearest My blushes will explain. I can no more reply.

ARBACES: Then hear me...

MANDANE: No.

ARBACES: Thou art...

MANDANE: Divide not thus my heart; Leave me... In pity go.

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 73

Artax CD booklet.indd 73 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 71 21/12/2020 17:58 BOTH: (Ye Gods that torture so, Some timely respite send. When will your rigour end?) (Exeunt, different ways.)

Scene VIII A temple, and throne, with a crown and sceptre; the image of the sun, with a lighted altar. ARTAXERXES, ARTABANES, Nobles, etc.

25 Recitative ARTAXERXES: To you, my people much belov’d, I offer Myself, not less a father than a king. Your native rights, your customs and your laws, With jealous care I ever will maintain, And raise up treasure in my people’s hearts.

ARTABANES: Here is the sacred cup – Your solemn oath must bind the lasting tie; Fulfill the accustom’d rites...(aside) and drink thy death.

Accompanied recitative ARTAXERXES: Resplendent Gods, by whom sweet April blooms, Thou genial beam that warms us and enlightens, Look awful down, and if my treacherous lips Have utter’d falsehood, may this wholesome draft Change, as it passes, into deadly poison.

74 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 74 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 72 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene IX Enter SEMIRA hastily.

Recitative SEMIRA: Fly quick, my Liege; thousands of rebel troops Surround the Palace, by Rimenes led. Your death is plotted, and your guards corrupted.

ARTAXERXES: O Gods!...

ARTABANES: What fear you, Sir? My single presence Shall quell this tumult, and protect my King.

ARTAXERXES: Away, my friend, to victory or death. (Going.)

Scene X Enter MANDANE.

MANDANE: Hold, brother, the rebellious crew are dead.

ARTAXERXES: Say how, Mandane?

MANDANE: Led by false Rimenes, They forc’d the gates and enter’d, when Arbaces,

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 75

Artax CD booklet.indd 75 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 73 21/12/2020 17:58 Departing to eternal banishment, His single breast oppos’d, and swore to die In his great master’s cause. All dropp’d their arms, Except that daring rebel at their head; On him Arbaces like a lion flew, Clove through his helmet, slew him, and revenged thee.

ARTAXERXES: Where’s my preserver? Bring him to my arms! (Exeunt Officers, with Guards.) He murder Xerxes? Impious supposition!

MANDANE: My heart respires.

SEMIRA: O loyal brother!

MANDANE: Valour suppress’d now springs again to glory.

26 No. 28, Air MANDANE: The soldier, tir’d of war’s alarms, Forswears the clang of hostile arms, And scorns the spear and shield. But if the brazen trumpet sound, He burns with conquest to be crown’d, And dares again the field.

76 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 76 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 74 21/12/2020 17:58 Scene the last Enter ARTABANES and ARBACES.

27 Recitative ARBACES: Behold, my King, Arbaces at thy feet.

ARTAXERXES: O still my friend! Come to my grateful breast.

MANDANE: Yet that my brother may with better grace Reward this deed, and satisfy the people, Some reason give us for the bloody sword, Thy tim’rous flight, and all that wak’d suspicion.

ARBACES: If deeds, not words, proclaim a loyal heart, Permit me to be silent – I am innocent.

ARTAXERXES: Confirm it with a solemn imprecation, And of the truth, as Persia’s Law prescribes, That vessel drain’d shall be the sacred pledge.

ARBACES: I am prepar’d.

ARTABANES: (O cruel Gods! If my son drinks he’s poison’d.)

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 77

Artax CD booklet.indd 77 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 75 21/12/2020 17:58 Accompanied recitative ARBACES: Resplendent Gods, by whom sweet April blooms, Thou genial beam that warms us and enlightens...

ARTABANES: (O wretched Father!)

ARBACES: Look awful down, and if my treacherous lips Have utter’d falsehood, may this wholesome draft Change, as it passes, into...

Recitative ARTABANES: Hold, ’tis poison.

ARTAXERXES: What fury urg’d thee to so vile a deed?

ARTABANES: Away, disguise; the draught was meant for thee. But my paternal fondness has betray’d me. I murder’d Xerxes; and, to gain the throne, Would have destroy’d thee too.

ARTAXERXES: Wretch, thou shalt die.

ARBACES: Then I disdain to live.

78 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 78 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 76 21/12/2020 17:58 ARTAXERXES: Mandane shall reward thy spotless virtue, And thy fair sister shall partake our throne: But for that traitor...

ARBACES: I will die for him. My blood is his, and shall atone his crimes.

ARTAXERXES: Thy loyalty and virtue, injur’d youth, Shall change his sentence into banishment... Make no reply; his exile is for life.

MANDANE: Sure Heav’n inspir’d this merciful decree; Arbaces and Semira must approve it. Though for his crimes the father justly suffers, His life is spar’d, that you his guiltless children May not be ever wretched in his death.

28 No. 29, Finale [composed by Duncan Druce] TUTTI: Live to us, to Empire live, Great Augustus, long may’st thou From the subject world receive Laurel wreaths to adorn thy brow.

MANDANE, ARBACES: Of his country ever free, There the royal father see!

ARNE / ARTAXERXES 79

Artax CD booklet.indd 79 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 77 21/12/2020 17:58 TUTTI: To the patron of our laws, Pierce the air with loud applause.

SEMIRA, ARTABANES: Virtue in his soul resides; In his truth the world confides.

TUTTI: To the patron of our laws, Pierce the air with loud applause.

MANDANE, ARBACES: Pity from the throne descending, How the monarch it endears; When with justice, mercy blending, In the King a God appears.

SEMIRA, ARTABANES: Tyrants claim with iron sceptre duty which our fears impart; But our gentle kind Protector Monarch reigns o’er ev’ry heart.

TUTTI: Live to us, to Empire live, Great Augustus, long may’st thou From the subject world receive Laurel wreaths to adorn thy brow.

80 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 80 18/12/2020 14:21:30 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 78 21/12/2020 17:58 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 79 21/12/2020 17:58 What the critics said about The Mozartists’ previous recordings

“Ian Page and The Mozartists always combine fascinating programming with thrilling music-making, and this first excursion into the dramatic heart of Sturm und Drang is no exception.” Gramophone (‘Sturm und Drang’, Volume 1)

“Page and his players once again demonstrate their total identification with this music in playing of dizzying drive and accuracy… Once again, high artistry conspires with scholarship and strength of concept to create a programme that scintillates from start to finish.” Gramophone (‘Sturm und Drang’, Volume 2)

“The playing in this early Singspiel fizzes with life, the singing is splendid and the work, childlike yet expert, charms.” Sunday Times (Mozart: Grabmusik / Bastien und Bastienne)

“A remarkable evening of arias sung with passion, urgency and drama… This is a terrific, unmissable disc.” Gramophone (Blessed Spirit – a Gluck retrospective)

“The series of Mozart operas being recorded under the direction of The Mozartists’ director Ian Page has already established him as one of the most stylishly authoritative interpreters of the composer working today.” Opera

82 ARNE / ARTAXERXES

Artax CD booklet.indd 82 18/12/2020 14:21:32 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_TEXT PAGES_FINAL.indd 80 21/12/2020 17:58 Performing edition by Ian Page

Orchestra playing on period instruments at A = 430 Hz

Artax CD booklet.indd 2 18/12/2020 14:21:22 Artax CD booklet.indd 83 18/12/2020 14:21:32 9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_COVER_SECTION_FINAL.indd 2 21/12/2020 17:55 ARNE: ARTAXERXES

THE MOZARTISTS IAN PAGE

9017_CO_Artex_BOOKLET_COVER_SECTION_FINAL.indd 1 21/12/2020 17:55 2 CD THOMAS ARNE 2 CD SET

SIGCD672 ARTAXERXES THE MOZARTISTS ARNE: ARTAXERXES Artaxerxes CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE countertenor “The performance Mandane ELIZABETH WATTS soprano is thrilling, with Arbaces CAITLIN HULCUP mezzo-soprano CHRISTOPHER AINSLIE ELIZABETH WATTS CAITLIN HULCUP ANDREW STAPLES Artabanes ANDREW STAPLES tenor exemplary singing Artaxerxes Mandane Arbaces Artabanes Semira REBECCA BOTTONE soprano and playing.”

Rimenes DANIEL NORMAN tenor / Ian Page The Mozartists GRAMOPHONE

The Mozartists ARNE: ARTAXERXES IAN PAGE conductor The Mozartists / Ian Page

Recitatives composed by Ian Page and finale by Duncan Druce This recording was originally released on Linn Records in 2010

REBECCA BOTTONE DANIEL NORMAN IAN PAGE 2 CD SET Semira Rimenes Conductor This recording is dedicated to Nikolas, Vicky & Stavros Tombris Total Playing Time: 137’44 ARNE: ARTAXERXES ARNE: ARTAXERXES

LC15723 SIGCD672 Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, United Kingdom SIGCD672 ℗ 2010 Classical Opera THE MOZARTISTS

9017_CO_Artex_DIGIPACK_2CD_FINAL.indd 1 21/12/2020 12:48