Ombra mai fu

“Ombra mai fu” is one of the most famous arias in Baroque music and is often referred to as ‘Handel’s Largo’. However, that term isn't entirely accurate: the score specifies the tempo as Larghetto, a little faster than a real one Largo.

The piece is the opening aria from Xerxes, the opera Handel composed in 1738. In it, the Persian king Xerxes sings of the shade of a plane tree in his garden—an unusual love song, addressed not to a human being, but to a tree. And there’s another surprising twist: Handel wasn’t the first to set this text to music. Both Francesco Cavalli and Giovanni Bononcini had already composed versions of it, based on the same libretto by Nicolò Minato. Handel built upon Bononcini’s setting.

Xerxes The opera itself was not a success at its premiere: after only five performances, it disappeared from the stage. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that “Ombra mai fu” was rediscovered. Since then, the aria has become one of the most frequently performed and adapted works of the Baroque era, with arrangements for organ and piano, among other instruments, and performances at both weddings and funerals.

Text (excerpt):
Never was there a shadow cast by a plant,
cara ed amabile, soave più.

Never had the shade of a tree been so precious, so lovely, and so gentle.