Both of Handel's new operas for the 1737-1738 season at the Haymarket had to be postponed due to the death of Queen Caroline. Handel composed the funeral music for her, and there also was a period of mourning. After the failure of Faramondo, Handel premiered an altogether different kind of opera. Serse is a comedy. It has buffo elements in the plot, in the musical style, and in the cast of characters. Elviro is a buffo bass role, an old servant who is central to the mismanagement of Serse's love affair, and who is responsible for some of the comic situations that evolve around the love plots. The opera Serse confused audiences and critics alike. Some called it an opera buffo, others a farce, and Burney even thought it the product of a "diseased" mind. It was a bigger flop even than Faramondo, although it has been revived for the modern operatic theater. Some of the music is exquisite, however. The beautiful love lyric "Ombra mai fù" later became renowned as an instrumental piece, and the duets in the opera are imaginative, individual, and original.

Serse is very unusually constructed for a Handel opera; half of the arias are not cast in the usual da capo form. There are several duets and important extended scenes involving linked numbers and recitativo accompagnato. The opera opens with an offstage aria by Romilda, accompanied by recorders, in an extended scene during which Serse becomes enamored of her. Another extended scene in Act Two has the comic servant Elviro singing a song in which he imitates the calls of street vendors. It is in this scene that he misdelivers an important love letter, thus setting the stage for many of the comic scenes to follow. Act Two is also livened by two unusual duets. In the second, the two male leads sing about their jealousy in asides to the audience. Only at the very close of this comical number do the two voices sing together. Even the argument written in the audiences' wordbook to explain the opera's plot is laced with irony and humor. In wit and feeling, this opera has been compared to Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte of Mozart.

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