Acis and Galatea
Mon 12 - Tue 20 July 2021
George Frideric Handel (1685 –1759)
A co-production with the Buxton International Festival and the Early Opera Company
Jealousy and devotion lie at the heart of Handel’s adaptation of Ovid’s classic tale of eternal love, Acis and Galatea. The sea nymph Galatea pledges herself to the mortal shepherd, Acis, but their idyllic existence is torn apart when the envious cyclops, Polyphemus, arrives to claim Galatea as his own. While Mount Etna shakes, he crushes Acis to death with a boulder. Reminded of her divine power, Galatea transforms her beloved’s gushing blood into a bubbling spring, the source of the River Aci and the two lovers are reunited forever in the Sicilian sea.
Having already set the story to music in Naples (1708), Handel returned to it with entirely new music for an English masque as an entertainment hosted by the Earl of Carnarvon at his country estate in midsummer 1718. It was his first dramatic work in the English language.
Baroque specialists Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera Company bring this popular dramatic work to Buxton after winning the opera category of the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2019 for their exquisite recording of Acis and Galatea. Director Martin Constantine has gained five-star reviews for his work with Longborough Festival Opera and Welsh National Opera. His production of Paul Bunyan, for WNO, won an RPS Award and was nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award.
Described by The Times as a ’delectable soprano and a serene, ever-sentient presence’, Anna Dennis is especially noted for her work in Modern and Baroque repertoire. Previous opera stages include Royal Opera House, English National
Opera, La Scala, Göttingen and Aldeburgh.
Nick Pritchard is a Samling Artist and was recently voted ‘Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera’ in the WhatsOnStage Opera Poll 2017.
Libretto by John Gay. Sung in English with side-titles.
Sponsored by
Creatives & Cast
Christian Curnyn Conductor
Martin Constantine Director
Anisha Fields Designer
Ben Pickersgill Lighting Designer
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Anna Dennis Galatea
Nick Pritchard Acis
Jorge Navarro Colorado Damon/Coridon
Edward Grint Polyphemus
David de Winter Chorus
