Falsa imagine (Handel) Hasnaa Bennani

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." ["I know that you are a veritable she-devil, but I will have you know that I am Beelzebub the chief of the devils."] With this he took her up by the waist, and, if she made any more words, swore that he would fling her out of the window." The diva obeyed – perhaps for the first time in her life – and scored one of her greatest triumphs with Falsa imagine.

Available from Ramée:
https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/85d37m/hasnaa-bennani-handel-arie-per-la-cuzzoni

Art in the video:
[0:34] Admiring the painting by Robert Kemm (1837–1895)
[1:51] An Amateur by John William Godward (1861–1922)
[2:47] Admiring Beauty by Guillaume Seignac (1870–1924)
[3:46] The Interior of an Atelier of a Woman Painter by Marie-Victoire Lemoine (1754–1820)
[5:03] Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d'Ognes by Marie-Denise Villers (1774–1821)

Видео Falsa imagine (Handel) Hasnaa Bennani канала Jeffrey Stivers