Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno by Georg Friedrich Händel

Review by António Lourenço in Classical. 30/05/2025

Handel’s Allegory Between Time and Pleasure at Teatro São Luís

This staged oratorio by Georg Friedrich Handel, performed by Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and presented at Teatro São Luís, brings to life the allegorical characters of Pleasure, Time, and Disillusionment, who assume human form and compete for the soul of Beauty.

Handel (1685–1759) travelled to Rome at the age of 22 to deepen his engagement with opera, working there primarily as an organist. At the time, public operatic performances were prohibited by papal decree. Nevertheless, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, a cultivated patron of the arts, welcomed leading musicians into his palace. Handel—already the author of several works in Italian and German, and later of Messiah, his English masterpiece after settling in London—received from the Cardinal a commission to compose La Bellezza ravveduta nel Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Despite the operatic ban, the work was conceived in a distinctly operatic form, albeit presented as an oratorio.

The vocal demands of this score require refined expressiveness and a stylistically informed Baroque technique. In the central role of Beauty, sung here by Eduarda Melo, one regrettably missed the necessary sweetness, stylistic elegance, and vocal nuance across the nine arias entrusted to the character.

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly Ana Vieira Leite, who delivered the famous aria “Lascia ch’io pianga” with sensitivity, expressive depth, and refined vocal control, earning well-deserved applause and bravos from the audience. This aria, later incorporated into Handel’s opera Rinaldo, was originally known as “Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa”.

The musical direction by Maestro Michael Hofstetter was elegant and well balanced, offering stylistic clarity while never overpowering the singers—an essential quality in Handelian performance.

The staging, directed by Jacopo Spirei, was modern yet coherent, effectively serving the allegorical nature of the work without distracting from the music.

Cast

Pleasure – Ana Vieira Leite: outstanding in vocal expression and style
Disillusionment – Cátia Moreso: a solid and convincing interpretation
Time – Marco Alves dos Santos: notable for his evolving technique and increasing musical refinement

This production was presented within the framework of the Buxton International Festival, in collaboration with Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, offering Lisbon audiences a thoughtful and musically rewarding encounter with one of Handel’s most philosophically rich early works.

A Teatro Nacional de São Carlos Production

António Lourenço

António Lourenço is an opera and cinema enthusiast whose life has been deeply intertwined with the performing arts, both as a musician and as a devoted observer of the world’s great cultural stages.

He received his lyrical training as a singer at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, where he performed as a tenor with the São Carlos Choir. For more than two decades, he also sang with the Lisboa Cantat Symphonic Choir, dedicating himself especially to the great masterpieces of sacred choral music. Alongside his choral work, he performed solo recitals of Italian opera arias and pursued studies in sight-singing and piano.

He refined his vocal and musical skills in masterclasses in Italy and Spain with distinguished artists, including the legendary soprano Montserrat Caballé and the renowned baritone Renato Bruson, as well as other prominent singers, pianists, and instrumental virtuosos. His repertoire has spanned a wide range of composers, from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner to Fauré, Poulenc, and Gershwin, embracing opera, symphonic-choral works, and sacred music. He has taken part in numerous large-scale works, including more than thirty performances of Carmina Burana, and has sung in eight languages.

Beyond performing, António has spent decades attending opera and concerts in many of the world’s leading venues. Since 1959, he has followed the seasons at São Carlos and has attended performances at houses such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House in London, the Palais Garnier and Opéra Bastille in Paris, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the Bayreuth Festival. He has also attended concerts in major European halls and at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, hearing many of the 20th century’s most celebrated conductors, singers, and instrumentalists during what he considers a golden era of performance.

His passion for the arts extends equally to cinema. A dedicated film lover, he has watched thousands of films at the Cinemateca in Lisbon and in Spain, attended masterclasses with filmmakers, interviewed director Costa-Gavras, and taken part in some film productions. His interest in live performance also includes theatre, with memorable experiences attending productions in London featuring actors such as Laurence Olivier, Paul Scofield, and Maggie Smith.

As a critic and commentator, António Lourenço approaches both opera and film with a sensitivity to detail, artistic intention, and cultural context. He listens and watches with the ear of a musician and the eye of a storyteller, always attentive to the dialogue between tradition and innovation, and eager to share that lifelong passion with others.

Thanks to: TNSC, André Quendera, Raquel Maló Almeida