Opera Tickets Italy

George Frideric Handel's oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, HWV 46a, would go on to go through several iterations before its final version of 1757, known as The Triumph of Time and Truth, was finally made public. This staging, at the Eternal City's Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, is a performance of the original. The Triumph of Time and Disillusion, as the 1707 version of the oratorio is titled in English, demonstrates all of the musical skill of the Baroque composer in his earlier career. A moral allegory and quasi-religious piece that reflects on hedonism and excess, it was based on a libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, a churchman as well as a patron of the arts who also wrote libretti for composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, among others.

Handel met and enjoyed the patronage of the cardinal during his stay in Rome, subsequently dedicating several cantatas to him. The German-born composer came up with Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in the spring of 1707 and the work went on to be premiered in the Italian capital later that year. In it, Tempo and Disinganno – Time and Disillusion – are personified, performed by singers, along with Bellezza e Piacere – Beauty and Pleasure – revealing the somewhat sensuous undercurrents that make this particular oratorio so fascinating.

By 1737, Handel was living and making a name for himself in London. It was at this time that he decided to revise and expand the work, adding a further section to the two he had composed in Rome. This version was first performed on 23 March 1737. The work was a moderate success with several performances as well as a revival in 1739. Despite its positive reception, the oratorio continued to undergo further revisions. In 1757, an English-language version of it was staged for the first time. The English scholar and librettist Thomas Morell produced the newly revised text for the piece.

Nowadays, some musicologists consider this final version not to be among Handel's truest works and attribute some of the new orchestration to John Christopher Smith Jr, who had served the ageing composer as his secretary. Consequently, interest in earlier versions of the work continues among many devotees of Handel's compositional style.

This staging of Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Teatro Costanzi, as the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is also known, is in its original, two-part form. The music is performed by the highly skilled Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Orchestra and a quartet of singers who take on the personified roles of Bellezza, Piacere, Disinganno and Tempo. The oratorio focuses on whether Bellezza will take the easier route in life, one that may be more full of Piacere but which necessarily will require some Disinganno. Over Time, will Truth turn out to be the more important, though? As the narrative unfolds, audiences are exposed to an allegorical battle for the very soul of humanity.