Composed in 1707 by Georg Friedrich Handel at the request of Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili, the work was written at a time when opera had been banned by papal decree.
The musician transformed the oratory into a score full of musical theatricality, whose plot revolves around four characters: Beauty, Pleasure, Time and Disillusion that all take on human form.
Beauty, the most complex, vacillates between the arguments presented by Time and Disillusion on the one hand and Pleasure on the other.
Despite this, the title is self-explanatory: Time and Disillusion triumph.

Production Buxton International Festival
Musical direction Michael Hofstetter
Staging Jacopo Spirei
Set and costume design Anna Bonomelli
Lighting design D. M. Wood
Portuguese Symphony Orchestra