Falsa imagine (Handel) Hasnaa Bennani

Falsa imagine from the opera Ottone, re di Germania, HWV 15 by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) Hasnaa Bennani, soprano Les Muffatti Peter van Heyghen, conductor Falsa imagine, m’ingannasti, mi mostrasti un volto’ amabile e quel volto m’allettò! Or cessato il dolce inganno, trovo orrore, trovo affanno, ove gioie il cor sperò. TRANSLATION (by Charles Johnston): False picture, you deceived me: you showed me a handsome face, and that face allured me! Now the sweet deception is past; I find repugnance, I find affliction where my heart hoped for joy. Handel’s first biographer John Mainwaring has left us the following vignette: “[Handel] having one day some words with Cuzzoni on her refusing to sing Falsa imagine in Ottone; “Oh! Madame (said he), je scais bien que Vous êtes une veritable Diablesse: mais je Vous ferai sçavoir, moi, que je suis Beelzebub le Chéf des Diables.“ [&q