 The music is mostly taken from Handel's operas, which in Beecham's day were rarely staged and were widely considered unstageable.Beecham researched the scores of many of them and for this ballet he exhumed forgotten numbers from operas including "Ariodante", "Il pastor fido", "Parnasso in festa" and "Rodrigo", adding at the climax the only well-known number in the score, the "Largo" – "Ombra mai fu" – from "Serse", transcribed for the full orchestra.Source