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 Dunedin Consort with director John Butt.
George Frideric Handel Clori, Tirsi e Fileno HWV 96
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.
