Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

Year after year, Ensemble Mattiacis, under the direction of Thomas de Vries, delights audiences at the International May Festival with its unique interpretations of early music. This year, the ensemble dedicates itself to George Frideric Handel's first Italian oratorio "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno", which tells the story of an allegorical contest between Piacere (pleasure, tempo, time) and Disinganno (disillusionment, i.e. realisation). Admittedly, this sounds rather complex, but Handel, only 21 years old at the time, recognised the dramatic potential of the material. As a result, he began developing his art of portraying profound psychological states through his arias, creating one ingenious melody after the other in a creative frenzy. He reused some of the arias from "Trionfo" in his later works, such as the famous "Lascia ch'io pianga" in "Rinaldo". And so, from today's perspective, his first Italian oratorio seems like a "best-of" compilation of Handel's most beautiful arias.