Handel Salute

When George Frederic Handel wrote his opera Xerxes, he little knew that it would owe its fame not to the stage but to churches all over the world where organists swell out the peaceful first-act aria under the name of the Handel Largo. The Saxon composer wrote Xerxes as a comic opera, when he was depressed by Bankruptcy woes in London. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of Handel's birth, Xerxes was revived last week by the State Opera in Berlin and by the music department at the University of Chicago.

Berlin was only mildly amused by the haremish antics, wondered why in his many operas Handel had been so content to write in the set Italian mold. Berlin pointed to the genius of the man who had been able to compose an oratorio like the Messiah. But Chicago was more intent upon Xerxes because of a newcomer to opera--Author Thornton Niven Wilder, who had been persuaded to transcribe the archaic translation and to direct the production. He not only did that but also put himself in the chorus to sing a few notes. Wilder's part came in the second act for which he discarded his spectacles, donned baggy blue trousers, black top boots, a silver-trimmed cape and a pancake hat. Thus disguised as a soldier, he proved himself an able baritone with his one big line: "Do you expect to find him here in some puddle?"

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