Il Xerse

[5] Surviving manuscripts including Cavalli’s own annotations from performances of Xerse in Venice, Genoa, Naples and Bologna clearly demonstrate that he often amended, cut, and reorganized material as each production was being prepared.

[4] Martha Novak Clinkscale included a modern transcription of the full score in the second volume of her Ph.D. thesis ("Pier Francesco Cavalli's Xerse") at the University of Minnesota, 1970.

The ballet music marked in the printed librettos is also absent, so he added short sinfonie by Cavalli and contemporaries to introduce acts and several important scenes and for changes of scenery.

The manuscript scores "offer no more than a kind of sketch of what should actually be played",[10] so Jacobs realized parts and added other instruments, such as two recorders, which probably were not used in Venice at the time, and used a basso continuo group of two harpsichords, theorbo, baroque guitar and chamber organ.

[19] A critical edition of the 1655 version by Sara Elisa Stangalino and Hendrik Schulze made in 2019[20] was the basis for a performance as part of the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca in 2022, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli and staged by Leo Muscato with the Italian countertenor Carlo Vistoli in the title role.

[21] Another new edition of the Paris version was prepared by Marcio da Silva for a concert performance at the Cockpit Theatre, London in 2021, although the title role was sung by a countertenor rather than a baritone, and the ballets were omitted.