We know very little about Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, other than that it was composed in 1707 during his Italian sojourn, and that it was intended for private performance in the palace of one of his aristocratic Roman patrons. Written to cater for secular tastes at a time when opera was actually prohibited by the church in the papal states, it’s essentially a pastoral cantata on an erotic subject for three singers and a handful of players.
The shepherdess Clori has two lovers, Tirsi (who has a bit of a temper) and Fileno (prone to melancholy), whom she plays off against each other, until the men first get wise to it, then become close to each other themselves. At this point the narrative breaks off, and Handel and his anonymous librettist give us a closing trio in which the protagonists ruefully comment on the bittersweet vagaries of desire. The score is glorious, a succession of arias and ensembles that pre-empt the ambiguities, depth and understanding of the major operas that followed. Its beauties and subtlety were very much apparent in this lovely performance at the Wigmore Hall.
Harry Bicket directed the English Concert from the harpsichord, and everything was superbly shaped and done with great finesse, with a sensuous brightness in the strings, a real richness in the woodwind and some truly spectacular theorbo playing from Sergio Bucheli. Ailish Tynan made a wonderful Clori, notably gorgeous in her opening aria, Va Col Canto Lusingando, and self-assured yet manipulative in her treatment of Joélle Harvey’s Tirsi and Iestyn Davies’ Fileno. Harvey, bright of tone and with an excellent trill, did fine things with Tirsi’s coloratura tantrums (Handel at his most exacting), though she could perhaps have given us more of the words in places. Davies, in contrast, was all soulful reflection and refinement: his final aria, Come la Rondinella dall’Egitto, with its beguiling theorbo solos, was very much a highlight. The performance was livestreamed, meanwhile, and is currently available on the Wigmore Hall’s YouTube channel. It’s well worth watching.
