In 1703 Handel left his hometown of Halle for Hamburg with the hope of beginning a career in opera. By 1706 he had written four operas, of which only Almira survives, but had grown tired of the constraints of opera in northern Germany. In order to broaden his horizons he travelled to Italy, the home of Italian opera, where he remained between late 1706 and early 1710 before settling in London for the remainder of his life from 1712. Whilst in Italy Handel spent the majority of his time in Rome under the patronage of Marchese Franceso Maria Ruspoli, Cardinal Benedetto Pamphilij, Cardinal Carlo Colonna and Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni at different times. In Rome there was no Italian opera, however several of his patrons who were keen on dramatic secular music gave performances of cantatas in their palaces, of which Handel wrote a considerable number. The concert in Tours under the title ‘Haendel à Rome: Cantates, duetti et sonate’ by the locally based ‘Ensemble Consonance’ under the direction of François Bazoloa, was mostly made up of works from Handel’s Italian period and was part of the conference ‘Handel after Handel’ which centred on the ‘making, lasting fame and influence of Handel and the Handelian figure’. Although Handel’s music written in Italy had little to do with the papers presented at the conference, the concert provided a pleasant diversion.

The programme began with a short improvised prelude for harpsichord played by Matthieu Dupouy, which acted as an attractive way to settle the audience and open the concert. The programme was then framed by two duets for soprano, bass and continuo, ‘Giù nei tartarei regini’ (HWV 187) and  ‘Tacete, ohimè’ (HWV 196), both of which were written at an unknown point between 1707 and 1709 during Handel’s time in Italy. The central part of the programme consisted of two cantatas, one each for soprano and bass, divided by a trio sonata (op. 4, no. 9) by Corelli, Rome’s leading violinist, who frequently collaborated with Handel during his time in the city.

Between mid-April and mid-July 1708 Handel left Rome to travel south to Naples, and it was there that the two cantatas on the programme were almost certainly written and performed. Little is known about the precise details of Handel’s trip to Naples; he had already been to Florence, and Naples, as the largest city in Italy and third largest in Europe after London and Paris, provided a rich musical scene that was tempting for a young composer. Cuopre talvolta il cielo (HWV 98) for bass, two violins and continuo and can be dated to this period based on paper types and stave ruling. The cantata, which isone of only two instrumental cantatas written for bass (the other is Spande ancor a mio dispetto), was probably for the same singer who took the part of Polifemo in Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (libretto by Nicola Giuvo), also written in Naples. On stylistic grounds, it is reasonable to think that Giuvo was also the librettist for the cantata. Cuopre talvolta il cielo, which follows a recitative-aria, recitative-aria structure, first describes the violence of a heavy storm in the opening recitative with thunder, lightening, darkness and rough seas depicted in the aria that follows. This is then compared to the torment of a beloved’s anger in the second recitative before an aria describes the resulting torment and suffering. François Bazola gave a convincing performance managing the difficult vocal leaps of up to two octaves well.

The second cantata of the evening, Dunque sarà pur vero (HWV 110) (listed in the programme under its alternative title ‘Agrippina condotta a morire’) is for soprano, two violins and continuo and is partly in the lamento style of the seventeenth century. The cantata describes a fictional monologue of the Roman empress dowager Julia Agrippina (AD 15–59) just before her assassination, ordered by her own son Nero, which took place in the Gulf of Naples and was reported by the historians Tacitus, Suetonius and Dio Cassius. The connection to Naples and textual overlaps with Giuvo’s libretto for Aci, Galatea e Polifemo suggests the work was possibly written in Naples in 1708 rather than in Rome, where there is no record of the work. The cantata offers a range of conflicting emotions, such as revenge, shame, despair, resignation, defiance, repentance and maternal love, depicted by Handel in four da capo arias and a passage of arioso intermixed with recitatives. Betsabee Haas showed her ability to sing both fiery coloraturas in ‘Renda cenere il tiranno’ and more reflective passages in the arioso ‘Come, o Dio!’, although in the former the band seemed to be a little cautious of playing overly attacca, which seemed to hold the soloist back and made the bolts of lightening in the violin figuration seem less violent than those called for in the text which describes revenge. Haas’s dramatic performance was clearly the result of her having read and understood the text and she showed engagement with the various emotions expressed in the cantata.

Given that the only piece of music which can be confirmed as being written in Rome was the trio sonata by Corelli and that the majority of the music by Handel on the programme was (probably or definitely) written in Naples, the title of the concert, Haendel à Rome, seems a little out of place. The performance included some well-executed passages and overall the singers convincingly engaged with the dramatic nature of the texts both in the solo cantatas – although on some occasions, especially in the duets, this could have been more intense. Despite their occasional lack of energy and accuracy, the instrumentalists generally played well, however there were also a number of tuning issues within the continuo group and once or twice the violins seemed a little unsteady, such as during dialog between the first and second violins in ‘Tuona, balena’ in Cuopre talvolta il cielo. Unfortunately Rémi Cassaigne exchanged his theorbo for a Spanish guitar in one of the cantatas, an instrument which has no place in any of the works on the programme. Handel prescribed a Spanish guitar on only one occasion in Nò se emendará jamás (HWV 140), providing a separate part for it, and there is no evidence to suggest he used it at any other time. The concert was nevertheless an enjoyable part of the conference.