Händel: Tu fedel? tu costante? HWV 171 - 1/2 - Kirkby

Описание: Tu fedel? tu costante? HWV 171

Italian cantata for soprano with strings (2 violins) and basso continuo

Text: -

Music: Georg Friedrich Händel

Composed: Venice, 1706? Rome, Spring 1707?

Copied for marquis Ruspoli on 16 May 1707
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Video part 1
Sonata
Recitativo: Tu fedel? tu costante?
Aria: Cento belle ami, Fileno

Video part 2
Recitativo: L'occhio nero vivace
Arietta: Se Licori, Filli ed io
Recitativo: Ma, se non hai più
Aria: Se non ti piace amarmi
Recitativo: Ma il tuo genio incostante
Arietta: Sì, crudel, ti lascierò
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In this video:

Emma Kirkby, soprano

The Academy of Ancient Music,
conducted by Christopher Hogwood

Recorded in December 1984
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"The parts and score of Tu fedel? tu costante? HWV 171 were copied in May 1707 for Marchese Ruspoli, Handel's most important patron in Rome; they are the first items in the Ruspoli archive to mention Handel's name. The singer was almost certainly Margherita Durastanti, a soprano with whom Handel was to have a long and profitable professional relationship. She sang in a number of his operas in London. The anonymous text tells of a woman rejecting a fickle lover; a refreshing change from the usual expressions of confused or hopeless love to be found in such works." - Robert Hugill

"Unusually, the cantata opens with a delightfully garrulous instrumental introduction - possibly intended to express the 'brio' which Fileno says he admires so much in the woman. The work also ends with a novel touch - a miniature aria with a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth sort of tune in which the singer finally and unsentimentally dismisses the philandering Fileno with a flea in his ear." - Simon Heighes
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Recitativo

Tu fedel? tu costante?
Ah! non è vero.
Tu usurpi ingiustamente
titoli così belli, empio Fileno!
Tu fedel, cui scintillano nel seno
sempre nove faville?
Tu costante, ch'il cuore
vanti diviso in mille parti e in mille?
Incostante, infedele, traditore!
Questi, Fileno, questi
giusti titoli sono e pregi tuoi,
onde superbo ir puoi
spergiuro, menzognero!
Tu fedel? tu costante?
Ah! non è vero.

Aria

Cento belle ami, Fileno,
e poi vanti aver in seno
un costante e fido cor!

Stolta è ben colei che crede
ch'in te sia costanza e fede,
empio, infido, mentitor!
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Translation (by Elin Manahan Thomas, slightly edited):

Recitativo

You, faithful? You, constant?
Ah, that is not true.
You claim such noble titles
unjustly, evil Philenus!
You, faithful, in whose breast
there is always a new fire burning?
You, constant, who boast that your heart
can be divided into a thousand pieces and more?
Inconstant, unfaithful, traitor!
These, Philenus, these
are the correct and true titles for you,
and yet you walk around proudly
as a perjurer, a liar.
You, faithful? You, constant?
Ah, that is not true!

Aria

You love a hundred beauties, Philenus,
and then boast that you have
a constant and faithful heart!

Foolish is she, who believes
that in you resides a constant and loyal love,
O wicked lover!
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Eser.