The Triumph of Time and Disillusionment: Laurence Cummings rediscovers the eternal truths (and very real delights) of Handel’s spectacular Italian oratorio.

Beauty knows that she’s fragile. Pleasure assures her that she’ll never fade – but then, he says that to all the girls. Disillusionment has some uncomfortable truths to tell, and Time, of course, always wins in the end. Or does he? In Handel’s allegorical oratorio, emotions take on a startlingly human form.

Before he came to London, Handel took Italy by storm. They called him ‘the dear Saxon’, and in Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno he turns philosophy into pure theatre. Still relatively unfamiliar in the English-speaking world, it’s an absolute knockout: flamboyant, expressive and containing some of Handel’s very greatest melodies. It’s a real passion project for Laurence Cummings, who conducts four of the most charismatic vocalists on the current baroque scene.