What is "tamerlano"

Tamerlano (" Tamerlane", HWV 18) is an opera seria in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music theatre company, with music by George Frideric Handel to an Italian text by Nicola Francesco Haym, adapted from Agostin Piovene's Tamerlano together with another libretto entitled Bajazet after Nicolas Pradon's Tamerlan, ou La Mort de Bajazet.

One of Handel's major works, he composed it in the space of 20 days in July 1724, in a year in which two more great operas were composed by him: Giulio Cesare and Rodelinda. Eve Meyer has noted that the role of Bajazet was one of the first major tenor roles in opera, and has also commented on the place of the opera in the context of the contemporary fashion for Turkish culture ( turquerie).