Lascia ch'io pianga

Its melody is first found in act 3 of Handel's 1705 opera Almira as a sarabande;{{sfn|Dean|Knapp|1995|pp=176–178}} the score for this can be seen on page 81 of Vol. 55{{Cite web|url=http://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP29677-HG_Band_55.pdf|title=File:PMLP29677-HG Band 55.PDF - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download}} of Friedrich Chrysander. Handel then used the tune for the aria "Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa", or "Leave the Thorn, Take the Rose", for the character Piacere in part 2 of his 1707 oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (which was much later, in 1737, revised as Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità).{{Cite web|url=http://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP44532-HG_Band_24.pdf|title=File:PMLP44532-HG Band 24.PDF - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download}}

Four years after that, in 1711, Handel used the music again, this time for his London opera Rinaldo and its act 2 aria "Lascia ch'io pianga" ("Let me weep"), a heartfelt plea for her liberty addressed by the character Almirena to her abductor Argante. Rinaldo was a triumph, and it is with this work that the aria is chiefly associated.

The aria has since been recorded by many artists, and is featured in several films including Farinelli;{{cite book |last=Haynes |first=Bruce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MCJArhvspfEC&q=farinelli+lascia+ch%27io+pianga&pg=PA25 |title=The End of Early Music |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=US |year=2007 |page=25 |isbn=978-0-195-18987-2}} All Things Fair by Bo Widerberg;[http://www.sfi.se/sv/svensk-film/Filmdatabasen/?itemid=21803&type=MOVIE&iv=Music Lærerinden – Musikstycken] (in Swedish). Swedish Film Institute. Retrieved on 28 July 2008. L.I.E. by Michael Cuesta; Antichrist[http://www.artificial-eye.com/database/cinema/antichrist//pdf/pressbook.pdf Antichrist Pressbook] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090730142433/http://www.artificial-eye.com/database/cinema/antichrist//pdf/pressbook.pdf |date=2009-07-30 }} (PDF). Artificial Eye. Retrieved on 28 July 2009. and Nymphomaniac, both by Lars von Trier. Most recently in 2023, it featured in instrumental form, within the score of the anime film The Imaginary by Studio Ponoc.

Handel wrote the aria in the key of F major with a time signature of {{Music|time|3|2}} and a tempo marking of Largo.{{efn|Subsequent publications in modern times have favoured a 3/4 metre, and it has been transposed into many different keys.}} In the first edition published by John Walsh, the orchestration is unspecified,[http://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP44807-Handel_-_The_Songs_in_Rinaldo.pdf The songs in Rinaldo], first edition giving only a solo melody line above an unfigured bass line. There is the mention 'violins' at bar 23 where the singer breaks (bar 31 in most modern editions which include an 8-bar introduction). Chrysander claimed{{Cite web|url=http://imslp.org/wiki/File:PMLP44810-HG_Band_58a.pdf|title = File:PMLP44810-HG Band 58a.PDF - IMSLP: Free Sheet Music PDF Download}} to have worked from Handel's 'performance score' and stated that the autograph manuscript had been lost (although RISM state that the British Library hold a fragment of the autograph missing 53 bars);{{RISM|800238134}} "Rinaldo autograph details Chrysander's edition shows two violins and a viola with a cello. He does not provide figuring for the continuo. It is not clear whether he invented the additional string parts himself (as he often did) or found them in the performance score to which he referred. Most modern editions seem to be based upon Chrysander's version, as can be seen from the different placement of certain syllables in the melismata in his version and in the Walsh first edition.

A performance takes about five minutes.

File:Handel, Rinaldo libretto,.jpg

Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili's text and lyrics for the 1707 version of the aria are:

Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa;

tu vai cercando il tuo dolor.

Canuta brina per mano ascosa,

giungerà quando nol crede il cuor.

Leave the thorn, pluck the rose;

you go searching for your pain.

Hoary frost by hidden hand

will come when your heart doesn't expect it.

{{Clear|left}}

Handel's 1739 pasticcio Giove in Argo also has a "Lascia la spina" aria, but a shorter one, less known, and set to a different melody.

The libretto for Rinaldo was written by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill. Almirena is addressing the Saracen king of Jerusalem, Argante, who is holding her prisoner and has just disclosed his passion at first sight for her.{{efn|The original text by Aaron Hill is drawn from the booklet annexed to Jean-Claude Malgoire's first full recording of Rinaldo, released by CBS in 1977 (see also the reproduction of the 1711 libretto above). The text in rhyme, by Samuel Humphreys, is drawn from the 1731 libretto{{cite book |last= |first= |date=1731 |title=Rinaldo. Opera. Da rappresentarsi nel Regio Teatro di Hay-Market |trans-title= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rw5XAAAAcAAJ |language=Italian, English |location=London |publisher=Tho Wood |page=29}}}}

Rossi's Italian text

Lascia ch'io pianga

mia cruda sorte,

e che sospiri

la libertà.

Il duolo infranga

queste ritorte,

de' miei martiri

sol per pietà.

Literal translation

Let me weep over

my cruel fate,

and let me sigh for

liberty.

May sorrow shatter

these chains,

of my torments

out of pity alone.

Period translation in rhyme

Ah! leave me to the last Relief

Of Tears, to utter all my Grief,

And let me, thus by Fortune crost,

Lament the Liberty I've lost.

Compassion only can propose

The Remedy for all my Woes.

And this Regret, you utter here,

Should prove by Pity 'tis sincere.

Hill's original text

Permit the wretched to complain

Of their unhappy fate;

The loss of liberty's a pain

That should our sighs create.

When you wou'd comfort an afflicted mind,

Pity, not love, shou'd make you kind.{{Clear|left}}

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Sources

• {{cite book|author-link=Winton Dean|title=Handel's Operas: 1704–1726|last1=Dean|first1=Winton|last2=Knapp|first2=J. Merrill|author-link2=J. Merrill Knapp|year=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-198-16441-8|orig-year=1987|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/handelsoperas1700000dean}}

• {{IMSLP|work=Rinaldo, HWV 7b (Handel, George Frideric)|cname="Lascia ch'io pianga" (Rinaldo, act 2)}}
• {{YouTube|MnBT84764ds|"Lascia ch'io pianga" with paged score}}, Sandrine Piau with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, {{ill|Bernhard Forck|de|Bernhard Forck (Geiger)}} conducting

{{George Frideric Handel}}

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Category:Arias by George Frideric Handel

Category:Opera excerpts

Category:Compositions in F major

Category:1705 compositions

Category:Soprano arias