Handel’s very first oratorio, composed in spring 1707, to an Italian-language libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili. Time and Disillusion are personified (thus spelled with an initial capital even in Italian). Comprising two sections, the oratorio was premiered that summer in Rome. One of its famous arias is Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa (Leave the Thorn, Take the Rose), later recast as Lascia ch’io pianga (Leave Me to Weep) in the opera Rinaldo.

Librettist Benedetto Pamphili
Date of composition 1737
Premiered 1737, March 23rd in London, UK
Type Oratorio
Catalogue HWV 46b
Spoken language Italian
Instruments Orchestra
Voice (Castrato)
Voice (Soprano)
Voice (Tenor)
Voice (Contralto)
Arrangements George Frideric Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth, HWV 71
Autotranslations beta Georg Friedrich Haendel: Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità, HWV 46b
Georg Friedrich Händel: Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità, HWV 46b
Georg Friedrich Händel: Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità, HWV 46b