Handel: Acis and Galatea (Erato)
During Handel's lifetime Acis and Galatea was advertised variously as a pastoral, an English pastoral opera, a serenata, a bucolic poem, a musical entertainment, a masque, an oratorio, and simply "Mr Handel's Music". The latter probably tells you all you need to know, and this lively new recording by William Christie's Les Arts Florissants will persuade you of the work's merit, regardless of category. The plot, while undoubtedly dippy, is mercifully brief: the giant Polyphemus, enraged by the affair between his beloved nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, hurls a rock at the latter and kills him, whereupon the distraught Galatea turns her ex into a fountain. Sophie Daneman is excellent as Galatea, and Polyphemus is vividly portrayed by the Irish bass Alan Ewing.
Arminta Wallace