Delirio amoroso Cantata for soprano solo and instruments HWV 99
Delirio amoroso Cantata for soprano solo and instruments HWV 99
Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili [1653-1730] was a leading figure in Roman culture, composing operas and cantatas as well as providing libretti for such composers as Scarlatti, Bononcini, and Melani. He held high Vatican offices, including librarian of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and archivist of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano. He was also a generous patron of the arts and became a friend of Handel during the composer’s Roman sojourn from 1706 to 1710 and they maintained a lively correspondence in later years. He provided the texts for this Cantata and for Handel’s first oratorio, Il trionfio del Tempo e del Disinganno, both works were performed in early 1707 at one of the Cardinal’s palaces. This was the era when opera was banned in Rome and cantatas were used to circumnavigate the papal law. The presence of dance movements in the score suggests that some kind of staging may have been undertaken in private. The score requires a chamber orchestra and virtuoso soloists: oboe, violin and cello.
Arcadian and ancient mythological themes were fashionable at the time and the Cardinal creates a tale along the lines of the Orpheus legend but with a twist. The soloist switches between narrator and the heroine Chloris herself. After a charming little overture in D major featuring the oboe, the plot is explained in a recitative: Thyrsis has died and his beloved Chloris is distraught. She enunciates her grief in a lively coloratura aria Let my thought fly up to heaven with an exacting solo violin part. In the ensuing recitative she decides to go to Hades and rescue him. She thinks she sees his shade but it vanishes and she appeals to him not to flee in a moving lament: I left the light for you. In the following recitative Chloris loses her cool and accuses Thyrsis of mocking her; however, she then resolves to be kind and will take him from Hades to the Elysian Fields. In her third aria she commands a breeze to steer their ship there Abandon your dark sails. An orchestral interlude follows for which Handel borrowed four lines of a piece by Reinhard Keiser, followed by music from his own opera “Almira”. To conclude Chloris sings a charming minuet: Oh these delightful and serene shores . The narrator then returns to round off the tale: perhaps all this had happened in Chloris’ mind. A short, sprightly orchestral minuet closes proceedings.
Ian Fox
