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No, di voi non vo’ fidarmi,
cieco Amor, crudel Beltà.
Troppo siete menzognere,
lusinghiere Deità.
Altra volta incatenarmi
già poteste il fido cor.
So per prova i vostri inganni,
due tiranni siete ogn’or.
One of a small number of remarkable examples of the genre composed by Handel in the 1740s. These late works demonstrate (even more than the numerous duetti he had written while in Italy in 1706–10 and in Hanover c.1711) his great skill in fashioning counterpoint that carries its considerable technical complexity lightly, with a disarmingly easy grace. Representing this type of virtuosic vocal chamber music in its ideal, most exquisite state, they are, in the words of Donald Burrows, “musicians’ music par excellence”.
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