This aria was written for Antonio Manna who had a big range. He probably sang higher and lower than even Karl Fischer who would nearly a century later sing Osmin for Mozart. It is sometimes called unsingable. I agree. I certainly can't sing it as written. But lots of tenors have sung parts written for Rubini even if they lacked his High F above High C. In that spirit I have assayed this unsingable aria.

Polyphemus (Polifemo in Italian) is the giant monster cyclops who captures Ulysses and eats most of his crew. That's Homer. Ovid's much later depiction of a younger Polyphemous is a kinder, gentler kind of monster. But he's still the villian of the piece. In this Handel's original Italian version and his latter very different English version, Polyphemus kills his rival Acis. We know that this cyclops is a sweeter kind of cyclops because he only kills him, he doesn't eat him. Maybe he's a vegan.

These music dramas are not quite operas but they were dramatic. They were called masques or cantatas and they typically had pastoral themes. So Acis is a shepard and Galetea is a nymph. They sing sweetly and simply as is appropriate for pastoral romping. But most of the basses or bass-baritones who have recorded this piece sing Fra l'Ombre as if it too were pastoral. They sing the whole thing as softly and sweetly as possible.

I think that's the wrong approach.

Handel rewrote this story by Ovid with completely different music. That's as if Verdi wrote two Rigolettos - both with the same plot but totally different scores. The English version is done more often.

Here is Polyphemus' English aria "O Ruddier than the Cherry":
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