Su la sponda d'un rio

The cantata's subject, treated with a soupçon of humour and originality (by being combined with the unrelated theme of sleep), is the familiar one of a lover protesting his fidelity to his beloved. The text comprises three arias, each introduced by a short recitative. This ‘RARARA’ structure, common enough in the later seventeenth century, tends to give way to a ‘RARA’ or even ‘ARA’ structure in the eighteenth century and is here a conservative feature.