Handel - Tamerlano

Tamerlano ('Tamerlane') (HWV 18) is an opera in three acts, with music by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's Tamerlano together with another libretto entitled Bajazet after Nicholas Pradon's Tamerlan, ou La Mort de Bajazet. One of Handel's major works, he composed it in the space of 20 days in July 1724, in a year in which two more great operas were composed by him: Giulio Cesare and Rodelinda. Eve Meyer has noted how the role of Bajazet was one of the first major tenor roles in opera, as well as the place of the opera in the contemporary fashion for Turkish culture (turquerie).