Pensieri, voi mi tormentate (Handel) Ann Hallenberg

Pensieri, voi mi tormentate from the opera Agrippina, HWV 6
by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Ann Hallenberg, mezzo-soprano
Vinciane Baudhuin, oboe
Il Pomo d'Oro
Riccardo Minasi, conductor

Pensieri, voi mi tormentate!
Ciel, soccorri a miei disegni,
Il mio figlio fa che regni,
E voi Numi il secondate!
Quel ch'oprai è soggeto a gran perglio.
Creduto Claudio estinto
A Narciso e a Pallante
fidai troppo me stessa.
Ottone ha merto, ed ha Poppea coraggio.
S'è scoperto l'inganno
Di riparar l'oltraggio.
Ma fra tanti nemici
A voi, frodi, or è tempo;
Deh, non m'abbandonate!
Pensieri, voi mi tormentate!

TRANSLATION (by Christine Conway-Morris):
Thoughts, you torment me.
Heaven assist my plans!
Let my son reign,
And you gods support him!
What I worked for is in great danger.
Believing Claudio to be dead,
In Narciso and Pallante
I confided too much.
Ottone has integrity and Poppea has courage,
If my ploy is discovered,
To dress the wrong.
But among so many enemies
Your time has come, deceitful strategems;
O do not abandon me!
Thoughts, you torment me!

Available from Deutsche Harmonia Mundi:
https://www.ilpomodoro.org/record/agr...

Art in the video:
[0:42] Messalina by Peder Severin Krøyer (1851–1909)
[2:14] Talma as Nero in Britannicus by Racine by Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
[2:44] A Grecian Lovely by John William Godward (1861–1922)
[4:00] Charlotte Wolter as ‘Messalina' by Hans Makart (1840–1884)
[4:53] Portrait of a Roman Woman by Anselm Feuerbach (1829–1880)
[5:36] The Remorse of Nero After the Murder of His Mother by John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)
[5:54] Portrait of a Roman Lady by Sir Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)