“Felice un tempo”: a lover remembering happy bygone days, lamenting over his pain and begging for his beloved – a scene that inspired many poets, librettists and composers of the baroque era. They put their protagonists in the popular and idealised world of nymphs and shepherds of Arcadia or the antique mythology. This recording combines the music of three composers who turned to the same subject. Their approaches to form represent a development in the Italian cantata from the early form by Legrenzi, characterised by smooth transitions from a recitative to an arioso and aria, through Bononcini’s clearly separated recitatives and arias and fi nally arriving at the late baroque/galant style, a good example of which is Scarlatti’s O Qual meco Nice cangiata.