BarokOpera Amsterdam, our resident opera company, presents Handel’s favorite opera Acis and Galatea, based on the story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
BarokOpera Amsterdam
BarokOpera Amsterdam creates contemporary productions using music from two to three centuries ago. Their performances honor the spirit and intention of the original creators, while the staging and approach are tailored to today’s audiences.
With spectacular acrobatics and dance, their productions bring the kind of spectacle and entertainment that audiences of the past also adored. BarokOpera Amsterdam is accessible, original, and the orchestra under the direction of Frédérique Chauvet performs beautifully.
BarokOpera Amsterdam has performed Acis and Galatea before, receiving high praise from the press:
Opera magazine praised the “soothing intimacy (…) a delicate performance, rich in nuance.”
Joep Stapel wrote in NRC: “lively and responsive (…) the musical integrity provided a pleasant contrast to the curiosities on stage.” And La Liberté Fribourg described it as “a subtle and restrained version, a feel-good experience for the audience (…) with sparkling and finely crafted contributions under the baton of Frédérique Chauvet.”
Handel’s Acis and Galatea
Love has always fascinated humankind, including in eighteenth-century Europe. Acis and Galatea is a “pastoral opera,” a somewhat lighter genre, yet it carries the intense, poignant traces of the world of Henry Purcell, the maestro of England, Handel’s adopted homeland.
In idyllic Sicily lives the nymph Galatea, deeply in love with the shepherd Acis. But the lovers have scarcely any time to let their love blossom before a rival suitor appears: the cyclops Polyphemus. Galatea rejects the monster’s advances, and Acis challenges him. In response, the enraged Polyphemus hurls a boulder at them, crushing Acis. From the blood seeping out from under the rock, Galatea causes a clear stream to spring forth—one that will forever bear her beloved’s name.
