Here's the deal. You are in love with a girl, who coincidentally is in love with your brother. Luckily (for you), you are the king of Persia and your brother —albeit much more handsome, glib and intelligent— is not. So now, you have to win the consent to marry her both from her and from her father, a man who also happens to be the commander of your army, which is poised to invade Europe.

Good thing you have your love interest's jealous and scheming sister, tragically in love with your brother as well, to aid you in your treachery.

So, you exile your brother and force his girlfriend to marry you. Everything looks good, right? Wrong! You forgot about the impending delivery of your mail-order bride, or rather, mail-order princess who is posing as a man and in the company of your triumphant army. Oh yeah, you're also 15.

Sound something like the plotline from your favorite soap opera? Well, you're close. Actually, the tale of lust, treachery and cross-dressing is from Georg Frideric Händel's opera "Serse," which translates into English as "Xerxes." (Pronounced like Zerksees)

Written in 1738, "Xerxes" is one of more than 40 operas Händel composed between 1711 and his death in 1759. The original opera was sung in Italian, but Nicholas Hytner created an English version of the show in 1985, which the Notre Dame Opera will use for this production.

Händel wrote "Xerxes" during the Baroque period in the Western Arts. The Baroque style is generally denoted by grandeur, explicit sensuality and emotional tension. Any given five minutes of "Xerxes" is absolutely smothered with such stylistic markers.

The historical Xerxes and Händel's depiction of the Persian king have little to do with each other. The real Xerxes I of Persia was, in fact, the younger of the two sons of Darius I and named heir apparent, much to his brother's chagrin. He was also not a spoiled and tyrannical despot as Händel's opera depicts him, but, by most accounts, a more charismatic leader.

Marc Verzatt, the director of the show being performed at Notre Dame, is not as concerned with the history of "Xerxes" as he is with the show itself. In fact, in his production, the show has been taken out of Persia in the fifth century c.e. and brought into the 1820s. Verzatt wants to give the audience a new look at the opera. "The whole idea of the stereotypical opera performance has been what my whole life has been about breaking," Verzatt said.

Instead of the stiff, padded costumes that mark too many modern opera performances, Verzatt wanted to do something a little more fashionable.

"We decided that we wanted [the costumes to have] a very sexy feel to them," he said.

The music Händel wrote is very sexual in nature and the production staff wanted the look of the show to reflect that. "It was a very sexy era," Verzatt says of the new time period.

Stylish costumes are not the only changes Verzatt has brought to the classic.

"This particular story lends itself to a highly theatrical presentation. There is not a time [period] precisely, nor does it have anything to do with history; it has everything to do with people and their relationships with each other," he said.

Verzatt sees Xerxes' story of lust and jealousy as a part of the teenage experience.

"I chose to make [the characters] teenagers because they're highly volatile, passionate people caught up in affairs of the heart," Verzatt said. "When you're, 15, 16, 17 years old and you start to date, you don't know the difference between sex-drive and love, you just want to be with somebody … The opera's about all these very complicated teenage emotions."

The theatrical aspect of the music is what draws Verzatt to the opera.

"I don't want our audience to come in and expect it to be just any old opera. I think opera audience are entitled to the same type of theater that they get when the Royal Shakespeare Company tours here," he said.

In particular, he feels that he can draw on his own experience as a teenager to help direct the show.

"I was a highly romantic teenager who loved the idea of being in love," Verzatt said.

As Verzatt and the cast explored new ways to present the emotion contained in the music they were surprised to find how naturally the libretto seemed to already contain the very themes they wanted to stress.

The Notre Dame Opera's production of "Xerxes" focuses on the natural theatrical nature of the show.

"If I am going to ask people to spend two, or two and half hours sitting in a show that I direct, then my responsibility to the audience become enormous," says the director.

And Verzatt plans to give the audience their money's worth.

Verzatt is an Adjunct Professor in Opera at Notre Dame. He began his career as a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera. Later, he joined the Cincinnati and Pittsburgh Opera companies as a stage manager and subsequently served as assistant stage director for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Recently, he was named Co-Artistic Director for the Lake George Opera Festival in Saratoga Springs, New York. Later this year, he will be staging Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos" for the Festival.

Of course, no opera could run very well, or even at all, without a conductor. The 2001 season will be John Apetios' sixth season as a Notre Dame Associate Professor and guest conductor of the Notre Dame Opera. Apetios is internationally known for performing as permanent guest conductor with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He even had a series of scholarships established in his name by the Cyprus Hellenic Alliance of Victoria in 1989 for his contribution to Australian musical culture. Apetios has served as a member of the panel of judges in numerous international opera competitions. After "Xerxes," Apetios plans to conduct a Celebrity Opera Gala with the Philharmonic Orchestra of London.

However, the show needs not rest on the laurels of its director and conductor to win the interest of an audience. As the cast and crew will attest, the score and story itself gives the show plenty of depth. With about 50 musical numbers, the opera begins tranquilly and continues to build into a twisted web of love triangles, schemes and perfidy.

The show begins with Xerxes (played by graduate student Matthew Coffman), sitting beneath a tree and becoming enchanted with the lovely voice of Romilda (voiced by the talented Paula Kearney, also a graduate student).

Although, traditionally ignored for the rest of the show, the director decided to use the tree as a part of the set for the rest of the opera. It serves as the meeting place for the various pairings of lovers, hiding places for spies and even as a dueling field during impassioned challenges.

Xerxes, infatuated by Romilda, attempts to woo her but finds out that she is in love with his brother Arsamenes (played by graduate student Michelle Holden). Enraged, Xerxes banishes his brother. Romilda's envious sister, Atalanta (played by junior Anney Gillotte), tricks Xerxes into believing that Arsamenes is actually in love with her and encourages Xerxes in his suit of Romilda.

Fooled by Atalanta's treachery, Xerxes forces Romilda to agree to marry him with her father's consent. The king then goes to Ariodates (performed by junior Jeff Palenik), Romilda and Atalanta's father as well as the commander of his army, and asks that Romilda be allowed to marry a nobleman.

Of course, Ariodates gives his consent thinking that the "nobleman" would be Arsamenes. When Xerxes leaves he promptly marries the two lovers.

When Xerxes returns and discovers his brother in matrimony with the object of his affections, he demands that Romilda kill herself for being unfaithful. All seems lost until the young man that Ariodates has been traveling with reveals himself, or rather herself, as Amastris (played by the versatile Hannah Neufeld, a graduate student), Xerxes' betrothed princess from a foreign country. Xerxes realizes his selfishness, forgives his brother and apologizes to Amastris.

Rehearsal has been more than going through the motions; Verzatt considers the process a learning experience for the actors as well as the audience. He is extremely attentive to fine details. During any given scene, he stops multiple times to work on body positions and emotions. However, Verzatt is anything but the classic temperamental director. The cast reports learning a lot from his directorial style.

"Working on the show has been challenging. In the end it has made me a better singer and a better actor," Michael Holderer says. Holderer plays Elviro, the buffo servant who presents comic relief and performs the real "dirty work" in the show.

Holderer enjoys the staging of "Xerxes." He likes it better than the unintelligible modern abstract style or the plainness of Baroque style staging.

The cast also contains a large chorus. Unlike the standard chorus, this one has an integral part in the show.

"I like how each member of the chorus was encourage to develop their own character," Kristen Moskow, a member of the chorus, said. The chorus plays the part of citizens, soldiers and servants.

For Verzatt it does not just boil down to trying to make opera interesting. He sees it as much more than that.

"This is a learning experience too," he says. He feels that opera is already fascinating; opera does not have to be made interesting because it already is captivating. "I'm not just trying to, I am making it interesting," Verzatt said.

The Notre Dame Opera was founded in 1991. Some members are voice or theater majors and get credit for participating in the show. However, some members of the cast participate because of their interest in opera performance and not for credit. During fall semesters, the group puts on a show of pieces from selected operas with special emphasis on techniques learned in class. Each spring, the group performs a full-length opera with a full orchestra. Last year they performed Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel." Other performances have included Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites" in 1999 and Mozart's "Così fan tutte," a close musical relative of "Xerxes," in 1996.

"Xerxes" will be performed in Washington Hall Theater March 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. General admission is $6, or $3 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available at the LaFortune Student Center Box Office or by calling (219) 631-8128.

• Can you handle Händel?