Composed in 1972 and revised in 1986, it is a "cinematic, circus-like"[1] depiction of the brief, lurid reign of the teenage third-century Roman emperor Elagabalus.
Henze's inspiration came not from historical records but from literature, notably Artaud's fictional biography Héliogabale and Stefan George's collection of poems, Algabal, lines from which preface the score: A symphonic poem in all but name,[2] the music is episodic in nature, depicting Heliogabalus's extravagant entry into Rome from his native Syria, as "ecstatic Arab children danced to the strident strains of barbarian music"[3] at the head of the procession.
The work lasts for about 28 minutes, and is scored for a large orchestra, with a particularly wide range of percussion (requiring five players), including steel drum, tom-toms, four sets of tam-tams, a flexatone, whistles and an array of bells.
This revision was published in 1986, and given its première on 28 June 1989 at the Villa Massimo, Rome by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra under Eberhard Kloke.
This was a transfer of a radio broadcast from 2014, made at the Maida Vale Studios in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen.