Dunedin Consort & John Butt

This leading baroque ensemble revives Handel's sparkling comic cantata, unearthing the origins of his operatic masterpieces.

Little is known about the genesis of Handel's early comic cantata Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, but the score was mined for a number of hits in his more well-known operas. Who better to bring this once neglected comedy to fizzing life than the dynamic Dunedin Consort and their incisive Music Director, John Butt.

Clori, Tirsi e Fileno tells the pastoral tale of an indecisive shepherdess whose wavering affections drive both her suitors away, proving that love doesn’t always flourish - sometimes it fades before it even begins. A light-hearted romp through the mores of its time, it concludes with a playful trio, Vivere e non amar (To live and not to love’).

Sharp-eared listeners will find echoes in Handel's Rodrigo and Acis and Galatea but hearing this witty cantata in its full is a rare and revelatory treat.

Handel Clori, Tirsi e Fileno

John Butt Director Julie Roset Soprano Nardus Williams Soprano Reginald Mobley Countertenor

Sung in Italian with English surtitles