About the work
Tamerlano is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel to a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on Agostino Piovene's text (1711) and ultimately on Jacques Pradon's tragedy "Tamerlan ou la mort de Bajazet" (1675). Handel composed the work in just three weeks in July 1724 and substantially revised it after the tenor Francesco Borosini arrived in September; the premiere took place on 31 October 1724 at the King's Theatre in London.
Plot
The Tartar ruler Tamerlano holds the defeated Sultan Bajazet captive and desires his daughter Asteria, though promised to Princess Irene. Asteria, secretly in love with the Greek general Andronico, feigns affection for Tamerlano in a failed plot to kill him. Facing disgrace, Bajazet poisons himself; his death moves Tamerlano to mercy, and he releases Asteria and Andronico.
Cultural significance
Bajazet's suicide gives Tamerlano one of the few tragic endings in Handel's operatic output. For this role Handel wrote a leading part for tenor rather than castrato for the first time, a novelty on London's Italian opera stage, and from this opera on he began regularly recording the start and completion dates of his compositions.