Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno

George Frideric Handel (Composer), Emmanuelle Haim (Conductor), Le Concert d'Astree (Orchestra), Natalie Dessay (Performer), Sonia Prina (Performer), Ann Hallenberg (Performer), Pavol Breslik (Performer), Patrick Beaugiraud (Performer), Astushi Sakai (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Natalie Dessay, Sonia Prina, Ann Hallenberg, Pavol Breslik, Patrick Beaugiraud, et al.
• Orchestra: Le Concert d'Astree
• Conductor: Emmanuelle Haim
• Composer: George Frideric Handel
• Audio CD (May 8, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Virgin Classics
• ASIN: B000F3T3E6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,282 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Handel’s earliest oratorio, dating from 1707, is an allegory in which the character of Beauty is tempted to a life of hedonism by Pleasure but is reasoned with by Time and Enlightenment and turns into a modest, better-balanced type. If this sounds dull, it isn’t. The young Handel, in Rome at the time, composed some of his most wonderfully Italianate melodies and was at the peak of his inspiration. Handelians will recognize bits in this work that he later used elsewhere. This performance is now the best available; while the one led by Rinaldo Alessandrini is excellent, here the always original and clever Emmanuelle Haim leads a superb cast, with Natalie Dessay (who has nine arias!) and Sonia Prina absolutely perfect and Ann Hallenberg and Pavol Breslik not far behind. Handel re-adapted this work at the end of his career, by the way, to an English translation. This is a sheer delight. --Robert Levine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Triumph for Haim, Dessay, Hallenberg, Prina, Breslik & le Concert l'Astrée, August 2, 2007

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cnomad (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Audio CD)

This early allegorical oratorio (written by Georg Frideric Händel at a mere 22 while on an Italian sojourn) already shows the inventiveness of this genius (and one can understand why the composer cannibalised the work for his later compositions). The libretto is no more than a poetic and moralistic conversation among its four allegorical personae, all individually characterised by the singers all armed with marvellous technique and emotional expression: Bellezza/Beauty (French soprano Natalie Dessay) is fought over by Piacere/Pleasure (Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg) on one side, keeping her enticed with the joys of present "superficial" and pleasurable pursuits, and Enlightenment/Disinganno (Italian contralto Sonia Prina) and Tempo/Time (Slovakian tenor Pavol Breslik) on the other. Of course, the libretto having been written by Händel's pal, the Cardinal, Benedetto Pamphili, it's inevitable that the "virtuous" personae of Enlightenment and Time will win in the end, and Beauty agrees to take on the hairshirt and do penance for enjoying life too much. And yet, the irony of it all is that the very music Händel wrote for this oratorio will bring such pleasures to its hearers and would likely draw the disapproval of Time and Enlightenment for its "corrupting" beauty!

The work is performed with spirit and verve as well as sensitivity by the singers, guided by Baroque conductor Emmanuelle Haïm directing her Le Concert d'Astrée playing on period instruments. Although her over-bright soprano took some getting used to by me, Dessay becomes simply delightful in her very many arias (about nine of them, by my last count), with coloratura passages as in "Un pensiero nemico di piace", "Della vita mortale" and "Un schiera di Piacere", all joyfully rendered and proving of little difficulty for her agile technique. Hallenberg gets to deploy her magnificent, incandescent mezzo in the work's most beautiful and famous arias, including the exquisitely languourous "Lascia la spina", the courtly "Un leggiadro giovinetto", and the furious "Tu giurasti di mai non lasciarmi" and "Come nombe che fugge col vento." Prina brings a measure of majesty to arias like "Più non cura" and "Crede l'uom chegli riposi", entrancing you with her dark, smooth and warm alto, with some impressive virtuosic runs in the middle of the latter aria. Finally, Breslik holds his own among the women as the authoritative and father-like chastising figure of Tempo, with his expressive and textured vocal that's hard to ignore, as in his affecting "Urne voi". On the ensemble pieces, the singers all blend together superbly, and one can get a taste of that excitement in the YouTube music video featuring the quartet singing the exhilarating "Voglio Tempo".

Additionally, director Haïm plays a mean organ on several tracks, with excellent sonata-like passages on "Taci: Qual sono ascolto?" and "Un leggiadro giovinetto". She's actually made this organ-leery listener more appreciative of that instrument.

This is a most welcome addition to the growing recorded Händel repertoire, and one highly recommended to anyone already a Händel fan, or one just starting to learn about the Baroque master's works.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as I hoped, September 5, 2007

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G. Rodger "grodger21" (Milwaukee WI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Audio CD)

While Dessay gives a lovely performance as Bellezza, and Hallenberg is fine as Piacere, the tenor and alto absolutely do not. The tenor bottoms out on a number of occasions, and while I love Sonia Prina in other recordings, she is not really a true alto. She also hits bottom, and on the occasions that Tempo and Disinganno are paired the voices fail completely to match. Such a pity. Tempos are too variable for me--the fast is a little fast at times and the slow drags and is missing energy. Such a disappointment. I bought this mostly because I was interested to see what Prina would make of this role, but I much prefer the older Minkowski recording with Nathalie Stutzmann, a true alto, as Disinganno and John Elwes as Tempo. The voices of these singers match so closely in their duet Il pianto dell'aurora that it is difficult to tell which singer is which--their unisons are exquisite. Prina and Breslik on the same piece do not work at all well. She is not only out-matched but the unisons barely sound.--she is much more comfortable at the octave. Prina does not sound good here, a severe disappointment after her fabulous performance as Megacle on the Naive recording of Vivaldi's L'Olympiade. I thought she had bottom notes, but alas no.

The quartet at the end of the first disc is also incredibly disappointing. There is no energy here. And this despite some, at times, overly prolific ornamentation from all of these singers in earlier tracks. The second quartet is better but is too fast and the interplay of the vocal lines is lost in the rush, particularly the relationship between the alto and tenor. Prina is completely overwhelmed in this quartet and can barely be heard--hard in this context to believe that Disinganno could possibly triumph by the end of this.

The Minkowski disc is long out of print now, and very hard to get. It took me a good year to track one down on ebay, but it was well worth the wait and if I had to recommend a recording I'd still choose Minkowski over all others. I don't know the Alessandrini recording but am generally not a huge fan of Mingardo (my own quirkiness, I'm sure, but I'm just not crazy about her voice, especially at the bottom of her range, which also promises much but fails to deliver).

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Performance, September 4, 2007

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Richard E. Undeland - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Handel - Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (Audio CD)

The 22 year old Handel's "Il Trionfo..." is an amazingly early effort in the oratorio form, made necessary at least in part by the Church's injunction against opera. It has movement, interplay of ideas and music, in one fine solo, duet or ensemble piece after the other. Like his later oratorios, Messiah excepted, it has considerable impact, though the story line is hardly dramatic in nature. It is Handel's genius that makes it work so well, giving the individual parts distinctive character and variety. Moreover, has anyone written more felicitously for the human voice than this composer, and he did most of it in his second and third languages?

Under the sure hand of Emanuelle Haim, the performance has, to my ear, fine pace, which helps bring out the best in both the four singers and the instrumentalists, and the latter are far more than just accompaniests. Perhaps Natalie Dessay lovely and precise singing of the Bellezza role should be singled out among he vocalists, but the other three -- Ann Hallberg as Piacre, Sonia Prina as Disinganno and Pavol Breslik at Tempo -- are fully up to the damands of their parts, and these demands are large. In contrast with his other oratorios, there is no chorus.

"Il Trionfo" is a Handel work that deserves to be hard more often, particularly when in the hands of such accomplished musicians.