This 18th century allegorical oratorio, libretto by Benedetto Pamphilj, in which Time and Enlightenment gradually persuade Beauty to relinquish her attraction to the transitory joys of Pleasure, feels quite…contemporary.

HANDEL
Come nembo che fugge col vento

Pleasure’s Aria
Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

As a cloud that flees with the wind,
Stern and angered I flee from you.
If deceit is all my substance,
How can I live in Truth?

Aria de Piacere
Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

Come nembo che fugge col vento
Da te fuggo sdegnato e serero.
Se l’inganno e il mio solo alimento
Come viver io posso ne Vero?

Libretto by Benedetto Pamphilj

The first selection is from the late mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Handel Arias, Harry Bicket and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Selection two is from the counter-tenor Andreas Scholl. Here from the Heroes CD, Sir Roger Norington, also with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 

It is difficult not to become rhapsodic when describing Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. Her voice possess a pure emotionality tempered by intelligence. When she died at the age of 52 in 2006 it sparked in me a moment of mortality that I could not shake for days. How was it possible that a presence so vital, visceral, could be lost?