About the work
Opera seria in three acts by Thomas Arne, to an English adaptation, probably by Arne himself, of Pietro Metastasio's libretto 'Artaserse' (1729); first performed on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, as the first full-length Italian-style opera seria in English.
Plot
After the murder of the Persian king Xerxes, the general Artabanes, the actual culprit, schemes to accuse his innocent son Arbaces of the crime. Only after entanglements involving false accusations and an attempted rebellion is Arbaces' innocence established, and he is reunited with his beloved Mandane.
Cultural significance
Artaxerxes remained in the Covent Garden repertory until the late 1830s, receiving a documented 111 performances before 1790; Arne was among the first English composers to use clarinets in the orchestra, and the young Mozart probably heard the work during his stay in London in the mid-1760s.