In 1706 Handel left Hamburg for Italy, and in May 1707 began living as composer-in-residence with the Marchese
Francesco Maria Ruspoli, traveling between the Bonelli Palace in Rome and the Ruspoli estate.
Clori, Tirsi, e Fileno was written sometime before October of that year – a copyist's bill for the work is dated October 14, 1707. There is no certain record of any performance, but it may have been given privately before Handel left for Florence later that year to conduct the premiere of
Rodrigo, his first Italian opera, which shares an aria with the cantata. The cantata was never revived, and for centuries was known only from a fragmentary manuscript score kept in the
British Library. A version of this fragment was published by
Chrysander in 1889. However, in 1960 musicologist announced the discovery of a complete score in the
Santini Collection at
Münster, the only one in existence. Comparison of the complete score with the earlier fragment in the British Library reveals revisions made late in composition: Handel had originally closed the cantata with a cynical duet for the two deceived lovers, "Senza occhi" ("Without eyes") in which they heap scorn on womankind and renounce love forever. He replaced this with a more light-hearted trio in which the young woman and her disappointed lovers all join, "Vivere e non amar" ("To live and not to love"). ==Musical connections==