[1] The first English opera seria, Artaxerxes premiered on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden,[1] and continued to be regularly performed until the late 1830s.

The rashness of the rioters was so great, that they cut away the wooden pillars between the boxes, so if the inside of them had not been iron, they would have brought down the galleries upon their heads.

[4] In the United States, the overture was played in Philadelphia as early as 1765, while arias from the opera were heard in New York City in 1767.

[5] The US premiere of the complete opera came on 31 January 1828 at the Park Theatre, in New York City, with a cast that included Elizabeth Austin as Semira.

[8] To mark Thomas Arne's 300th birthday, a fully staged production of Artaxerxes was performed in October 2009 in the Linbury Theatre of London's Royal Opera House.

The cast included Christopher Ainsley as Artaxerxes, Rebecca Bottone, Caitlin Hulcup and Elizabeth Watts.

The title role (Artaxerxes) and that of Arbaces were written for the Italian castrati, Nicolò Peretti and Giusto Fernando Tenducci respectively.

As the young lovers express their love for each other and their despair at Arbaces' banishment, Artabanes arrives carrying a bloody sword.

Artabanes tells him of his father's death and accuses Artaxerxes's older brother Darius of the murder, "Who but he at dead of night could penetrate The palace?

However, Rimenes (also in love with Semira) has Arbaces led into the chamber in chains, announcing that the bloody sword used to kill Xerxes had been found in his possession.

[11] When Dr Arne first brought the Opera of Artaxeres to a rehearsal, Tenducci sung the Air "Water parted from the Sea" with such effect that Miss Brent for whom the part of Mandane was composed, flew to Dr Arne with some violence, and told him "he might get whom he pleas'd to take Mandane; because he had given the best air in the piece to Tenducci."

He retired from the theatre – sat down, and having written the first words of "Let not rage thy bosom firing" composed an air to them in the same character as "Water parted," though it is inferior in other respects: This he presented to Miss Brent, who being struck with the application of the first line to her own violence of temper, told the Doctor "that she was appeased, and would sing to the utmost of her ability to serve him.