When 22-year-old Handel arrived in Rome in 1707, he found a city in full cultural effervescence. Many extremely wealthy cardinals and princes held private musical salons, or “conversazione”, there, open to the public one day a week. One of the most important for the Roman intelligentsia was inherited from Queen Christina of Sweden, who had gathered around her the elite of artists and writers of the time. After his death in 1689, this group took the name of the Academy of Arcadia, and devoted itself to the exploration of new ideas. The Marquis Ruspoli, who had just been appointed head of the Academy, asked Handel, whom he had taken under his protection, to write a Pastorale (in this case a small opera with few protagonists) to serve as a central work at their first meeting in the summer of 1708. Thus was bornAminta e Fillide , premiered on July 14, 1708, for the restricted and elite circle of members of the Academy, and probably given outdoors in the Ruspoli Gardens in Rome.
Aminta e Fillide resembles a classic pastoral, where a nymph meets a young country boy – and the difficulties begin. But here, Aminta is not satisfied with trying to seduce the distant Fillide with the usual flattery; instead, he invokes “il Dio bambin col strale suo divin”, the child Christ who will pierce her with his arrows of divine love. Thus the pastoral is elevated to a higher reality, transformed into a religious drama. Handel's music, as with all his Roman cantatas, shows a young composer exploring the full extent of his means. His score teems with invention, it is a series of memorable airs that he will take up again in his operas Agrippina and Rinaldo ., virtuoso and brilliant writing for singers and instrumentalists, unexpected orchestrations – including a formidable solo for archlute. In homage to Corelli's Roman style, Handel also creates stunning concerto grosso effects, with violin solos opposing the ensemble. He succeeded in inventing an entire opera orchestra with the most restricted means, employing only a few violins and a basso continuo. Handel held in high esteem the freshness of his inspiration during his Roman period: his 160 secular cantatas, almost all on a love theme, were the laboratory from which he drew for his many future works, operas and oratorios. William Christie therefore invites you to recreate the magic of these evenings at the Academy of Arcadia, around amorous cantatas given in the sublime setting of the Théâtre de la Reine du Petit Trianon. The evening is obviously articulated around the reception of the guests in the French Pavilion and its Gardens decorated with summer flowers...
