Educational Media Reviews Online

Staged in 2009 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death, the opera and ballet companies of the Royal Opera House collaborate in this remarkably tender and affecting production of the composer’s masterpiece, Acis and Galatea.

While not particularly well-known today it was beloved and frequently performed in the composer’s lifetime. Referred to as a “seranata” by Handel, who left no stage directions, the piece has been interpreted in a variety of ways over the years. Here, it is brilliantly conceived and produced as a pastoral opera, a fusion of music, both vocal and instrumental, and dance, flowing seamlessly together as though Handel had intended it to be so all along! The plot, based on a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is a simple one of the doomed love between the nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis. When Galatea rejects her unappealing suitor, Polyphemus, he becomes enraged and murders Acis. Galatea transforms her beloved into a fountain which she dances around with his spirit. Danielle de Niese is stunning as Galatea, both vocally and dramatically, while at the end she displays her balletic ability. Charles Workman is a fine Acis, the two principles together making a rapturous couple. Polyphemus is portrayed effectively by Matthew Rose. Wearing flesh-colored leotards, dancers shadow the leading vocalists, interpreting their emotions, miming and underscoring with fluid, sensuous movements. Director/choreographer Wayne McGregor once more displays his genius for bringing together opera and dance in unexpected ways that somehow, in his hands, seem perfectly balanced and inevitable. Some of the costumes seem a bit odd but do not distract in the face of this brilliant interpretation. The orchestral performance is everything we expect from Christopher Hogwood and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, well-known for their consistently first class performances on period instruments. Although in English, subtitles would have helped the audience to fully appreciate Handel’s genius. Suitable for any strong music collection from high school up.