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| Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno – Jeanine De Bique, Polly Leech, Christopher Lowrey, Nick Pritchard, La Nuova Musica, David Bates – Wigmore Hall (Photo: image capture from Wigmore Hall live stream) |
Handel: Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno; Jeanine De Bique, Polly Leech, Christopher Lowrey, Nick Pritchard, La Nuova Musica, David Bates; Wigmore Hall
Reviewed 28 February 2026
Vivid musical presence and compelling drama make this concert performance of Handel’s first oratorio an engrossing evening, vividly alive and vital playing combining with vocal beauty and sense of drama
Handel’s first oratorio, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Disillusion) had a remarkably long life. Premiered in Rome in 1707 during Handel’s youthful Italian trip, the work not only provided source material for many of Handel’s subsequent works, but resurfaced in London in 1737 (and 1739) in a revised and expanded version, still in Italian, as Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità and finally was recast in English as The Triumph of Time and Truth in 1757 as a stop-gap because the blind and ageing Handel was no longer capable of writing new work.
It is a remarkably exuberant piece. Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili’s highly intelligent libretto might be somewhat conceptual with conversion of Beauty from a yearning for worldly enjoyment personified by Pleasure to an aspiration to more secure rewards revealed by Time and Disillusion, but in execution Pamphili gave Handel sufficient character and drama that the composer was to create a quasi-opera. It is worth bearing in mind that the work was written at a time when there was no opera in Rome. The piece works as a psychological study, as demonstrated by Jacopo Spirei’s staging at Buxton in 2024 which successfully recast the oratorio as family drama. But it also contains music which demonstrates Handel at his best. Italy had clearly been liberating for him and his musico-dramatic experiments in his cantatas paid dividends in works like Il trionfo.
David Bates and La Nuova Musica treated us to Handel’s original Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at Wigmore Hall on Saturday 28 February 2026. Soprano Jeanine De Bique was Belezza, mezzo-soprano Polly Leech as Piacere, countertenor Christopher Lowrey as Disinganno and tenor Nick Pritchard was Tempo. David Bates directed the 17 players of La Nuova Musica from the harpsichord.
It was clear from the opening notes of the Sonata dell’Overtura that this was going to be an engrossing evening. Bates drew vividly alive and vital playing from his players, the final section being wonderfully celebratory with special mention of the oboes.
All four soloists came with terrific Handelian credentials, and each managed to combine stylish, virtuoso singing (this is music meant to impress after all and show off the singers) with an individual sense of character. They brought a feeling of drama to the piece evening though the four were simply sitting in a row at the front of the stage. It helped that each of the singers had their own individual, special quality to their voice.
It is difficult making goodness interesting, but Jeanine De Bique made Bellezza’s journey completely compelling. Her opening aria felt as if she was going to dance and De Bique was wonderfully intent, combining strong presence with great style. In later arias she went on to demonstrate her sense of bravura too, allied to an urgent impetuosity. In Part Two, as Bellezza starts to question things, De Bique brought a lovely fragility to her performance, allied to plangent tone, her arias profoundly touching. At the crucial point in Part Two, De Bique’s Bellezza was wonderfully touching and expressive. Her final accompagnato and aria can seem something of a downer, but Bates and De Bique fined everything right down so that the final moments had real magic to them
Polly Leech certainly looked that part as Piacere. She began with a vivid sense of character and rich tone, then in Part Two elegance was combined with an almost lush quality to her tone as the character works hard to seduce Belezza, yet her second aria in Part Two had a don’t-mess-with-me quality too. Her best known aria was of course, Lascia la spina in Part Two, which is Piacere’s last gasp at convincing Belezza. Leech sang the famous melody with poise and expressive tone, but produced a wonderful display of temperament in her final, bravura aria. You could imagine the character stalking off the stage in disgust.
As Disinganno, Christopher Lowrey’s opening aria with solo cello demonstrated the lyric beauty of his voice along with a touching sense of melancholy and this continued in his second aria with recorders. In Part Two, as the subject matter became more intent, Lowrey continued to combine grace with lyric beauty. At the moment of triumph in Part Two, Lowrey and Pritchard made their duet a beautiful thing, two finely expressive lines interweaving.
David Bates brought out the vivid contrasts in the orchestral contribution to Tempo’s first aria. Nick Pritchard complemented this with a vivid intensity of expression, which continued in later arias. Pritchard had a very compelling manner allied to beauty of tone and clarity of presentation (he is, after all, a consummate Evangelist in Bach’s Passions). His final aria in Part One managed to combine a persuasive beauty of tone with vivid, almost trenchant expression. This continued in Part Two where his ardent commitment to meaning allied still to fine tone quality, then in his second aria Pritchard demonstrated his virtuoso skills too in vivid passagework.
Each Part contains a quartet, with Handel drawing remarkable expressive opportunities in both. At the end of Part One, there was something strong and powerful in the way the line was passed around between each of the soloists (the four do not sing together). The quartet in Part Two was vivid and urgent, this movement came at a crucial time in the dramatic argument.
The orchestral contribution included all manner of solo opportunities, not just oboes, but the oboists doubling on record, cello, violin and of course Handel’s own instrument, the organ in the Sonata in Part One. Throughout there was a vividness, presence and virtuosity in the orchestral contribution that matched and complemented that of the soloists.
This was the sort of musico-dramatic presentation of an oratorio that was so persuasive in its own right that you saw no need for any staging. Whilst Jeanine De Bique captivated hearts with her final accompagnato and aria, each soloist made a vividly compelling and finely differentiated contribution. This was an evening when the drama was wonderfully balance and the time flew by.
The performance is available to view in Wigmore Hall’s Video Library.
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