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The poetic theme of the cantata is the
well-worn one of unrequited love. In the opening aria, the singer challenges the God of Love to battle. This is a true aria di battaglia in which the singer mimics the idiom of the trumpet. Indeed, the first seven bars of the vocal part, transposed up a whole tone, would suit a Baroque trumpet in C excellently. The protagonist, whose persona is male (although that fact did not then, and does not today, disqualify the cantata from performance by female sopranos), confesses his love-smitten state in a brief recitative. The second aria, almost folk-like in its simplicity, gives vent to the singer’s amorous feelings. In the next recitative, the singer chides the beloved for shunning him; Albinoni ends it with a piece of coloratura writing illustrating her certain downfall if she persists in this attitude. A softer tone arrives in the third aria, in which the singer resigns himself to his beloved’s ingratitude. In the final recitative, he returns to a more threatening pose, promising to pay her back in her own coin one day – even if, at the final cadence, he collapses into self-pity, well conveyed by Albinoni through the use of the Neapolitan Sixth. The concluding aria expresses confidence that she will eventually see the error of her ways.
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