In this concert we bring together eighteenth-century works telling the tragic stories of three betrayed women of Classical history and legend. Handel’s dramatic cantata ‘Armida abbandonata’ HWV105 (1707) tells the story, derived from Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberate, of the Saracen sorceress, abandoned by her Christian lover Rinaldo. Handel’s ‘Agrippina condotta a morire’ HWV110 (c. 1708) explores in considerable psychological depth the predicament of Julia Agrippina moments before her assassination in AD 59 at the orders of her son, the emperor Nero.

Haydn’s cantata Arianna auf Naxos tells the story of the goddess Ariadne, abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by her lover Theseus. It was originally written with keyboard accompaniment in 1789 or 1790, though this performance uses a contemporary version with string orchestra.

The concert is completed by three related instrumental works: the overtures to Handel’s operas Agrippina (1709) and Rinaldo(1711), and the poignant concerto Il pianto d’Arianna op. 7, no. 6, published by Pietro Antonio Locatelli in 1741.

Steven Devine is one of the busiest keyboard players and directors in the British early music scene.  In addition to many appearances at SVF he is co-principal keyboard player of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and a member of London Baroque and a number of other chamber groups.