Invernizzi's alluring voice is fluent in challenging virtuosity but sweetly penitent as she rejects Aldrich's somewhat assertive 'Pleasure'. Oro's 'Enlightenment' is powerful, focused and subtle… Ornamentation and improvisation is highly stylish throughout, and orchestral support polished despite some scrambling tempos. Altogether thoroughly enjoyable.

When Marc Minkowski made the first period-instrument recording of Handel’s Roman oratorio, he had the field to himself. Nowadays, the competition is stiffer. De Marchi’s soloists can’t match Emmanuelle Haïm’s (Virgin), but Roberta Invernizzi (Beauty), Kate Aldrich (Pleasure), Martin Oro (Enlightenment) and Jörg Dürmüller (Time) are all stylish Handelians who give much pleasure.

Handel’s first oratorio … is also his most exquisite. ‘The Triumph of Time and Dis-Illusion’ … bursts with youthful vitality and virtuosity as it blends a moral-religious allegory with some astute early psychology … Alessandro De Marchi energises his Academia Montis Regalis and some fine soloists
into the perfect blend of Baroque dynamism and ethereal beauty

This new recording from Alessandro de Marchi and his lively Italian period band faces strong competition from Rinaldo Alessandrini (Naïve) and Emmanuelle Haïm (Virgin)...But de Marchi's crisp, surely-paced direction has none of his rivals' occasional tendency to exaggeration and (in Haïm's case) indulgence...With her pure, pellucid timbre and acute response to the text, Roberta Invernizzi eloquently limns Beauty's journey from blithe, carpe diem heedlessness to the grave simplicity of her final prayer. As Pleasure, mezzo Kate Aldrich is equally good in seductive mode and hurling out splenetic coloratura. Martin Oro's distinctive, slightly feminine countertenor makes its mark as Enlightenment; and if Jörg Dürmüller's tenor has a touch of grittiness, he matches his colleagues in dramatic intelligence.

While this zippy recording falters at first - Marchi rushes his period Academia Montis Regalis rather sloppily through the dizzying opening - there is much accomplished, responsive playing and the tempo is always smart. Elsewhere, Roberta Invernizzi's luscious-voiced Belleza is the undisputed star, impressive in her many fiendish arias.