Composed in 1707 in Rome, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (The Triumph of Time and Truth) is Handel’s very first oratorio. It features four allegorical characters: Beauty, Pleasure, Time, and Truth. Beauty chooses to ignore the finite nature of existence, and the fickle quality of good looks, preferring instead to admire herself in the mirror of Pleasure. But Time and Truth unite to prove to her that beauty is a flower that blooms in a day and then dies. Time and Truth join forces to divert Beauty’s desire from fleeting pleasures of the moment to more enduring values, and to direct her gaze from the surface to the essence of being.
Performed at the spectacular Baker-Baum Auditorium at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, Handel’s drama is reimagined by director Sydney Roslin in her Opera Neo directorial debut, and conducted by world-renowned harpsichordist and conductor Jory Vinikour.
