Xerxes (reigned 486-465 BC), a king of Persia, made an unsuccessful effort to conquer Greece in 480-479, suffering a major naval defeat at the Battle of Salamis. Xerxes was the son of Darius I and Atossa, daughter of Cyrus I. When Xerxes succeeded his...

To use an analogy, ENO's latest Xerxes was lemonade with the top left off. It looked like, smelt like and tasted like the real thing, but was a little flat. This, the sixth revival of Nicholas Hytner's 1985 production of Handel's evergreen tale of...

OPERA REVIEWS What a night to remember! English National Opera's production of Handel's Xerxes at the Coliseum on 7 November, like the rococo architecture of the theatre, was full of exuberance and colour but applied precisely and with sound knowledge. This is not...

Greece's critics hated "300," but moviegoers here are lining up to watch the gory recreation of the Battle of Thermopylae in record numbers _ happy to lap up the Hollywood thrills and take an indulgent view of what detractors call a butchery of their ancient...

When the great German bass Kurt Moll came out for his curtain call after the second act of Die Meistersinger at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich a few evenings ago, the audience gave him a hero’s ovation. Mr. Moll had appeared only fleetingly as...