Handel: Va tacito, from his Opera Giulio Cesare ( Julius Caesar). Andreas Scholl, countertenor

Va tacito e nascosto (Italian. English translation: Silently and stealthily ) is an aria written for alto castrato voice in Act 1 of George Frideric Handel s opera Giulio Cesare in Egitto (Julius Caesar in Egypt HWv 17), composed in 1724 to a libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym. Here in this aria, a diplomatic standoff is depicted; a peeing contest, as it were its outcome made entirely unambiguous by the overwhelming military supremacy of the upstart Romans, led by Julius Caesar. Here is a clip