Lascia chio Pianga

George Frideric Handel was German and later English. He lived in Italy between 1706-1710. During his days in Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice, he met important representatives of Italian baroque music such as Arcangelo Corelli, Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico Scarlatti and Agostino Steffani. He interacted with these artists in a way that would result in Italian music finding reflections in his own works.

Handel lived in Hamburg between 1703-1706. Influenced by the German musical tradition, he staged his opera Almira for the first time in 1705. He composed three more operas in the three years after 1705, but none of these operas survived. Handel's works were influenced by the German musical tradition until he went to Italy. Therefore, Almira is German.

Source: https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll63/id/5303/

Rodrigo, first performed in 1707, is Handel's first Italian opera. However, the Italian influence in Rodrigo is weaker than in Handel's later Italian-influenced compositions. In the following years, the influence of Handel's life in Italy on his work would become increasingly evident.

One of Handel's most important works in the baroque opera style is Rinaldo. It was first performed at the Queen's Theatre in 1711. Rinaldo has the distinction of being the first opera composed specifically for the stage in England. During the same period, operas were forbidden to be staged in Rome by order of the Pope. However, operas were staged in other Italian cities of the period.

In England, the Handel effect that began with Rinaldo lasted for decades. Rinaldo was performed many times in England until 1717. In 1731, Handel made some changes to the composition of the opera. These changes were not related to him, but Rinaldo lay dormant for about 200 years. It was not performed anywhere. In the 1950s, there was a revival of interest in baroque opera and it was staged again in Halle, Handel's birthplace, in 1954.

In the third act of Almira, there is an aria for a soprano: Lascia ch'io Pianga. After Almira, the aria is included in another Handel composition, El tronfo del Tempo e della Verita, in a modified version as Lascia la Spina. Handel re-used the aria, in a slightly modified form, for Rinaldo in 1711. Lascia ch'io Pianga appears in the second act of Rinaldo. This aria, which lasts approximately five minutes, receives a standing ovation in many concert halls around the world.

Lascia ch'io Pianga has a tremendous harmonic richness thanks to the basso continuo technique, which is frequently used in baroque music. It is the aria that literally carries Almira and Rinaldo on its back. It is still one of the most preferred arias in concert halls today.

Lascia ch'io Pianga has also been used in some films. One of the performances that impressed me the most was given in a scene in the film where Farinelli's life is told, with the voice of Philippe Jaroussky.

Farinelli (Carlo Maria Michelangolo Nicola Broschi) lived between 1705-1782. His voice was so beautiful in his childhood that in 1717, due to the family's financial difficulties, he was castrated with the approval of his brother, because he could not afford private music lessons and because there was a possibility that his voice would not be of interest when it started to change. Thus, the possibility of his voice changing was eliminated. Boys with beautiful voices whose voices were preserved by castration were called castrati, and it was a common practice at the time.

Farinelli moved to Naples with his family in 1711. He went to Vienna in 1724. He moved to London in 1734. The fact that he lived during the years when Handel composed his compositions and that he passed through some of the cities where Handel lived suggests that he may have sung Lascia ch'io Pianga, as seen in the film about his life.

Farinelli was produced in 1994. The work should not be judged solely by the performance in this film. There are also very good performances by artists such as Kirsten Blaise , Julia Lezhneva, Patricia Petibon.

We hope you enjoy listening to this magnificent and spine-chilling aria.