Recorded live at The Sixteen’s Handel in Oxford Festival, 2006, Elin Manahan Thomas gives a performance of captivating communication and sparkling intelligence in these stunning and contrasting Handel Cantatas, bringing to life the world of four women, all of whom have been betrayed by love and its deceitful charms. 

 

Agrippina, sister of Caligula and wife of Claudius, vacillates from fiery monarch in outrage to a tender mother appalled by her son’s weakness. At the last, she resigns herself to a noble death at the hands of her cruel, ignoble son.  Nel dolce dell’ oblio descries the sweet oblivion of sleep as the beloved Fili lies dreaming of her darling.  Tu fedel, Tu Costante has the singer berating her beloved, Fileno, for his philandering ways as he loves a hundred beauties and wishes to share himself with them all.  In the last aria she decides either to love another, or to live entirely with out love henceforth.  Armida abbandonata tells a tale of desperate, unrequited love. When the Saracen witch Armida falls in love with captured warrior Rinaldo, Armida bewitches him to love her in return but eventually her spell fails and Rinaldo returns to his ship and abandons her.