During the fasting season in Handel's London, dramatic works were not allowed to be performed. This prompted the composer to revive an Italian oratorio he had composed thirty years earlier in 1737 and enrich it with choruses. 

In the brief half-year period from August 14, 1736, to January 27, 1737, Georg Friedrich Handel achieved an unprecedented level of productivity in his opera compositions, creating three operas. Additionally, in March 1737, he also composed a largely new oratorio titled "Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità" ("The Triumph of Time and Truth") HWV 46b. The libretto of this oratorio closely corresponds to that of the oratorio "La Bellezza ravveduta nel trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" ("Beauty Reconciled in the Triumph of Time and Enlightenment"), also known by the now outdated title "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" HWV 46a, by Benedetto Pamphili (1653–1730), written in 1707.

With "La Bellezza ravveduta", Handel composed an allegorical and particularly dramatic oratorio in 1707, right at the beginning of his oratorio compositions. In this work, there is no chorus inclined towards reflection. Not only do the four allegorical figures, Bellezza (Beauty), Piacere (Pleasure), Tempo (Time), and Disinganno (Enlightenment), listen to each other and react to the ideas presented by the others, but this prevailing dramatic principle of dispute is also found in the recitatives. In contrast, Handel's operas and English oratorios feature a different approach, where the predominantly recitative-based action is often interrupted by reflective arias and, in oratorios, by choruses. These interruptions often bring the action to a standstill when there are no other dramatic characters to react to the presented content.

In 1737, when reworking the oratorio material as "Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità", Handel approached the task pragmatically, as always. He needed a new non-dramatic work to fulfill the evening's program for his audience at the Covent Garden Theatre during the fasting season when theatrical performances were prohibited. Although he had excellent Italian vocal soloists, notorious for their pronunciation in Handel's English oratorios and who naturally preferred singing in Italian, Handel found a solution. It was evident to Handel that, in response to the ban on performances of his Italian operas during the fasting season of 1737, he should promptly create a new oratorio in the Italian language but following the three-part "English" oratorio form that he had developed in "Esther" (HWV 50b) in 1732. He would remain loyal to this form until the end of his career. Handel kept an archival score of his first oratorio in his private library. When he conceived the idea of using this score as the basis for his new work in 1737, he probably didn't even consider maintaining the two-part, chorus-less, and dramatically focused Italian form of "La Bellezza ravveduta". Unlike in Rome in 1707, he had access to a chorus in London in 1737, and the English oratorio, with its substantial choral sections, a preference for concert-like rather than dramatic composition, and frequent inclusion of organ concertos loosely related to the narrative, was already established.

A remarkable example of the dramatic approach in contemporary Italian oratorio can be found in the Sonata from No. 10 of "La Bellezza ravveduta". The texts of the subsequent Aria No. 11 (HWV 46a, also featuring the organ) and the following recitative make it clear that the organ concerto movement presents the organist Handel in the Palace of Pleasure (Piaceres) as part of the narrative. In "Il trionfo del Tempo", the same dramatic approach is evident in the integration of instrumental movements, as seen in the corresponding pieces of HWV 46b No. 10 for solo violin and HWV 46b No. 10a for carillon. The sound of the carillon adds a unique color to the magnificent depiction of Piaceres' palace.The new volume of the "Halle Handel Edition" includes the original version of the 1737 premiere as well as all the surviving early and later versions (the latter being exceptional highlights) of individual musical pieces from "Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità".

Michael Pacholke
(June 2023)