Acis and Galatea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Operas by George Frideric Handel |
|---|
Almira (1705) |
- For the Lully opera please see Acis et Galatée.
Acis and Galatea is a "pastoral opera" or masque composed by George Frideric Handel while he was living in Cannons (the seat of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, during the summer of 1718, to words by John Gay, Alexander Pope, and John Hughes, who borrowed freely from John Dryden's English translation of Ovid published in 1717, The Story of Acis, Polyphemus and Galatea. In 1732 Handel revised and expanded it to three acts.
It is not clear whether the piece was staged, semi-staged, or performed as a concert work. The single voice allotted to the chorus links the work with the contemporary Italian serenata. The libretto is based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, xiii (see Acis and Galatea). It was first published in 1722, and went through a number of revisions before finally becoming the two-act work which is generally performed today. It had a number of revivals in various forms and was Handel's most widely performed dramatic work during his lifetime. Handel frequently re-used old material in his new works, and Acis and Galatea was no exception: it included material from his cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (1708), as well as others of his Italian cantatas. Perhaps the best-known arias from this piece are the bass solo: "I rage, I melt, I burn" and the tenor aria "Love in her eyes sits playing".
In 1788, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart rescored the work for his then-patron Baron Gottfried van Swieten.
[edit] Synopsis
The basic plot is that Galatea, a semi-divine nymph, is in love with the shepherd Acis, who is friends with Damon, another shepherd. Along comes a monstrous giant, Polyphemus, who falls in love with Galatea. Galatea rejects Polyphemus, as she loves Acis. Polyphemus, in anger, kills Acis. Galatea is distraught, but her attendants remind her that she is divine, so she turns him into a fountain, making him immortal.
The Dictionary of National Biographies (DNB), vol XIII, entry for Thomas Mountier (fl 1719-1733) describes that "On 17.5.1752 under Dr.Arne at the New Theater in the haymarket Handel's 'Arcis and Galatea' was first performed ... , (Thomas) Mountier in the part of Arcis and Miss Arne as Galatea"
[edit] Singers
- Galatea - soprano
- Acis - tenor
- Damon - tenor (treble in the 1718 version)
- Polyphemus - bass
- Coridon - tenor (only occurs in some versions, generally not included in modern productions)
[edit] References
- Stanley Sadie. "Acis and Galatea", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed April 1, 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
- Music Associates of America: Acis and Galatea
 |
This article about an opera or opera-related subject is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
