If we are to believe the accounts of the composer's first biographer, John Mainwaring, the twenty-year-old Georg Friedrich Handel, staying in Hamburg, looked at the scores of Italian composers with a hint of disdain. However, the words of Ferdinando de Medici soon came true, that Handel needed “only a trip to Italy to convince him of the style and taste that dominate there.” Indeed, immersion in the artistic life of Florence, Rome, and later Naples and Venice, gave the composer's mature style a particular originality and sophistication. One of the fruits of his journey to Italy is Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno HWV 46a from 1707 – an oratorio written for Rome, called by Romain Rolland a “hidden opera.” At that time, the city had a church ban on staging drammi per musica, which did not cool the aesthetic needs of an elite group of audiences enamored with lavish dramatic works. The libretto prepared for Handel by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilj deals with universal matters – the nature of Beauty, the essence of Truth, the limits of Pleasure, and the inevitability of the passage of Time. The dispute of four allegorical characters draws the audience deeper into reflection on the challenges posed to humans by the surrounding reality. Alongside highly valued virtues, temptations and disappointments also appear. It is significant that this first version of the oratorio ends with the poignant aria Bellezza Tu del Ciel (in later versions replaced by the triumphant Alleluia), dominated by a sense of helplessness and – in the face of acquired experience – longing for innocence. The creators of the Polish Royal Opera's stage interpretation of Handel's work follow the shadow present in this vision. By embedding musical dialogues in a contemporary narrative and an unconventional production concept, they pose bold, engaging questions to the audience about the role of values in a world where knowledge and understanding come at a high price. MUSICAL DIRECTION KRZYSZTOF GARSTKA DIRECTOR WALDEMAR RAŹNIAK SET AND COSTUME DESIGN BARBARA GUZIK LIGHTING DESIGN ADA BYSTRZYCKA PROJECTIONS WOJTEK KAPELA ASSISTANT DIRECTORS SŁAWOMIR JURCZAK, AGNIESZKA KOZŁOWSKA STAGE MANAGER TATIANA HEMPEL–GIERLACH ◆ CAST ◆ - BELLEZZA Julia Pliś - PIACERE Aneta Łukaszewicz - DISINGANNO Anna Radziejewska - TEMPO Sylwester Smulczyński - ACTORS Patrycja Grzywińska, Joanna Lichorowicz-Greś, Vova Makovskyi, Wojciech Wereśniak The Early Instruments Ensemble of the Polish Royal Opera CAPELLA REGIA POLONA KRZYSZTOF GARSTKA harpsichord, positive organ The patron of the Polish Royal Opera is TOTALIZATOR SPORTOWY. Royal Theatre in the Old Orangery at the Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw ⏰ Duration: approx. 2h 20 min (with intermission) Seating is unnumbered ⚠️ Note: access to the Royal Theatre in Łazienki from Agrykola Street. If you have any questions, we are available at the event venue or by phone 📞 +48 500 309 424 from Monday to Friday between 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
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