Falsa imagine from the opera Ottone, re di Germania, HWV 15
by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Hasnaa Bennani, soprano
Les Muffatti
Peter van Heyghen, conductor
Falsa imagine, m’ingannasti,
mi mostrasti un volto’ amabile
e quel volto m’allettò!
Or cessato il dolce inganno,
trovo orrore, trovo affanno,
ove gioie il cor sperò.
TRANSLATION (by Charles Johnston):
False picture, you deceived me:
you showed me a handsome face,
and that face allured me!
Now the sweet deception is past;
I find repugnance, I find affliction
where my heart hoped for joy.
Handel’s first biographer John Mainwaring has left us the following vignette: “[Handel] having one day some words with Cuzzoni on her refusing to sing Falsa imagine in Ottone; “Oh! Madame (said he), je scais bien que Vous êtes une veritable Diablesse: mais je Vous ferai sçavoir, moi, que je suis Beelzebub le Chéf des Diables.“ [&q
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