"Lascia ch'io pianga" (English: "Let me weep"), originally "Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa" (English: "Leave the Thorn, Take the Rose"), is an Italian-language soprano aria by composer George Frideric Handel that has become a popular concert piece.

Its melody is first found in act 3 of Handel's 1705 opera Almira as a sarabande;^[1] the score for this can be seen on page 81 of Vol. 55^[2] of Friedrich Chrysander. Handel then used the tune for the aria "Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa", or "Leave the Thorn, Take the Rose", for the character Piacere in part 2 of his 1707 oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno (which was much later, in 1737, revised as Il trionfo del Tempo e della Verità).^[3]

Four years after that, in 1711, Handel used the music again, this time for his London opera Rinaldo and its act 2 aria "Lascia ch'io pianga" ("Let me weep"), a heartfelt plea for her liberty addressed by the character Almirena to her abductor Argante. Rinaldo was a triumph, and it is with this work that the aria is chiefly associated.

The aria has since been recorded by many artists, and is featured in several films including Farinelli;^[4] All Things Fair by Bo Widerberg;^[5] L.I.E. by Michael Cuesta; Antichrist^[6] and Nymphomaniac, both by Lars von Trier.

Handel wrote the aria in the key of F major with a time signature of ³
₂ and a tempo marking of Largo.^{[lower-alpha 1]} In the first edition published by John Walsh, the orchestration is unspecified,^[7] giving only a solo melody line above an unfigured bass line. There is the mention 'violins' at bar 23 where the singer breaks (bar 31 in most modern editions which include an 8-bar introduction). Chrysander claimed^[8] to have worked from Handel's 'performance score' and stated that the autograph manuscript had been lost (although RISM state that the British Library hold a fragment of the autograph missing 53 bars);^[9] Chrysander's edition shows two violins and a viola with a cello. He does not provide figuring for the continuo. It is not clear whether he invented the additional string parts himself (as he often did) or found them in the performance score to which he referred. Most modern editions seem to be based upon Chrysander's version, as can be seen from the different placement of certain syllables in the melismata in his version and in the Walsh first edition.

A performance takes about five minutes.

Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili's text and lyrics for the 1707 version of the aria are:

Handel's 1739 pasticcio Giove in Argo also has a "Lascia la spina" aria, but a shorter one, less known, and set to a different melody.

The libretto for Rinaldo was written by Giacomo Rossi from a scenario provided by Aaron Hill. Almirena is addressing the Saracen king of Jerusalem, Argante, who is holding her prisoner and has just disclosed his passion at first sight for her.^{[lower-alpha 2]}