Customer Reviews

Handel: Acis and Galatea [Blu-ray]

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Acis and Galatea recounts the myth of the doomed love between the shepherd Acis and the nymph Galatea, based on a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Although Handel did not conceive Acis and Galatea as a fully staged production with action, it takes well to the stage. In this respect, it joins other Handel works (such as Theodora, Hercules, and Semele) that have adapted well to a dramatic treatment.

Since the characters (with the exception of the giant Polyphemus) are nymphs and shepherds, a pastoral setting is to be expected. The costumes are slightly odd (Acis and Coridon wear ratty sweaters, for example, and Damon sports a fedora) but generally unobtrusive. The most distinctive feature of this production is that, in most sections, the singers are doubled by dancers from the Royal Ballet, who provide a visual commentary on the text. In the concluding section, Acis's double takes on the role of Acis himself, now transformed into a god.

Danielle De Niese (who was a knock-out as Cleopatra in the Glyndebourne Giulio Cesare) shines both musically and dramatically as Galatea. Charles Workman (whom I first encountered as Jupiter in the DVD of Semele) is equally convincing as Acis. (I'm especially fond of his "Love sounds the alarm.") The expert Handelian Christopher Hogwood conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a fine choral ensemble.

As is often the case these days, you can find extensive excerpts from this DVD on YouTube. If you check them out, I think that you will come to agree with Handel's contemporaries, who made Acis and Galatea one of most performed of the composer's works during his lifetime. It contains some of Handel's finest music and provides a very enjoyable evening's entertainment.

(Note: The Blu-ray and DVD of Acis have been available since March 1 in the U.K., from which I purchased my copy.)

I have viewed this piece twice and was somewhat perplexed first time. I should have done some reading of the essay in the accompanying booklet first to understand better what was involved in this rather unique composition. It is unique in that it was not originally perceived as an opera and Handel left no staging instructions. So this has left the opportunity for imaginative interpretation, something of which the director and choreographer Wayne McGregor took full advantage. He interwove the singing and (minimal) acting with a variety of ballet sequences which might appear odd at first viewing. He explains his philosophy in a very interesting 9 minute extra and this should be viewed first to get full appreciation of the production.

There is a brief illustrated synopsis on the disc but, to me, it does not help very much and a small paragraph in the booklet would have been much better to explain the very simple story of a couple of lovers Acis and Galate and shadowed by a jealous Polphemus who finally kills Acis.

The music is vintage, appealing, Handel extremely well played by Hogwood and his orchestra and beautifully sung by a cast of 50 led by the lovely Danielle de Nice and Charles Workman. I remain puzzled as to why Galatea had to have a rope like blonde wig over her lovely auburn hair but that distraction was soon overlooked as the music wove its magic. Initially the ballet dancing made little sense but after viewing the work a second time and hearing from McGregor his philosophy behind the choreography, it became more evident how much it was an important part of the production, adding significantly to viewing of the work compared to merely listening to the audio. The dancing was sensuous and excellent.

So, this production is a little gem. If you like Handel's music and are prepared to see something quite different, then you should enjoy this disc as much as I did.

John

For a hammer everything looks like a nail, and for a choreographer any opera looks like a dance! Thus Acis and Galatea, this charming story from Ovid's Metamorphoses, put to a beautiful music by Handel in form of a mascherada, ends up like a modern dance performance.With my ballet dancer/teacher wife, I truly like dance performances, except when I expected to see and hear an opera.

The Royal Opera has a wonderful group of dancers, capable to perform any ballet. They also have very good choreographers. But it is a sorry idea to have a choreographer as the director for the performance of the opera. Here, the primary visual provided to the audience is that of the dancers, who, dressed in tight semi-transparent body-suits mostly placed in the foreground, often in front of the hapless singers. Frequently we do not even see the singers, or even the chorus, singing in the background [because of the filming]. Meantime the dancers jump, slink, roll-around, climb on each-other, and continuosly wriggle their arms and legs. According to my professional dancer wife, it is better to close our eyes and just concentrate on the beautiful voices and the music. I fully agree: I expected to see and hear Handel's opera and not a "Vitus dance" on the stage.

Most singers - visible or not - have good voices and deliveries, especially Ms. DeNiese. Christopher Hogwood and his orchestra produces a magnificent rendering of the music. But the outfits of the solo singers are shoddy and dirty, there is nothing to even suggest that this opera is about mythical demi-gods and shepherds. It rather seems they all came from an asylum.

Thus if you buy this DVD, you should be avare of the product.

Handel's first musical treatment of the tale of Acis and Galatea, based on Ovid, was a 'serenata' composed for a wedding in Naples in 1708. Serenatas were usually performed at night, outdoors, with the most skilled singers available reading their music from partbooks but standing amid decorated sets. That composition, in Italian and in Handel's most flamboyantly Italian style, only faintly resembles Handel's English "Acis and Galatea", commissioned in 1717 by the Duke of Chandos for performance at his mansion, Cannons. Most of the evidence suggests that the second piece was intended as a "masque" in the distinctively English tradition of Purcell and other 17th C cavalier composers. It might have involved gorgeous costumes, sets, and dancers, but it's not at all likely that the singers performed dramatically, as actors. Thus, "Acis and Galatea" is neither a small opera nor a ballet, in any later sense. That doesn't warrant any objection, to my mind, to staging it as such. Adding the "trope" of an artful ballet to the cantata-like music doesn't offend MY purism; if it offends yours, don't watch it!

Honestly, the dancing is the most delicious part of this staging. I'm not a fervent dance fan; it's hard to watch dancers from the orchestra pit, with your face to the conductor and your back to the stage. So I watched these dancers as if they were athletes -- acrobats -- and i took great pleasure in their supple, expressive movements, particularly the duets of Lauen Cuthbertson as Galatea and Edward Watson as Acis.

But I was not so thoroughly thrilled by the musical performance. I hate to say it, but I'd rather just watch the dancers and listen to one of the two excellent CDs of this music, one by Les Arts Florissants and the other by The Dunedin Consort. Frankly the acting performances of the singers on this DVD were upstaged completely by the dancing, and I was annoyed when the camera close-upped a singer's postures and lost sight of the dancers. I've defended the vocal artistry of Danielle de Niese several times in other reviews, so I also hate to say that I wasn't much pleased by her performance here. Her technique seems coarse -- not really bad, mind you, just not quite polished enough for Arcadia. Her physical presence, the glamour that made her a sensation as Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare, doesn't compel much attention here. Her costume is scruffy. Her movements lack the energy I expected from her. Her whole physical presence seems heavy rather than sprightly. I hope I'm mistaken, but she looks heavier in this role, in both senses, than she was in earlier roles.

Basso Matthew Rose sings the role of the lumbering, raging giant Polyphemus adequately - not outstandingly - but the production calls upon him to sing bare-chested, with his flabby belly exposed thoughout. Okay, I get the 'dramatic' point, but this is ineluctably a musical spectacle intended as aristocratic Beauty, not as sweaty verismo. My guess is that poor Matthew would have preferred a lion-skin robe or a green Shrek costume.

Charles Workman is somewhat better as an actor but not overly awesome in singing the role of Acis. His buddy Damon, sung by Paul Agnew, seems out-of-context as a slouchy, scruffy comic relief figure in pastoral paradise. Agnew's musicianship is intact, but his voice is plainly fading. Finally, there's the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, playing proficiently, conducted too cautiously by Christopher Hogwood, sounding solid but dull.

Handel's early Italian serenata, "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo", has also been released on a DVD as a semi-operatic stage piece. I haven't had a chance to see it yet. Frankly, I enjoy the earlier work, purely on musical terms, more than the later. There's an excellent CD of it -- a Brilliant Classics bargain -- sung by Stefanie True, Luciana Mancini, and Mitchell Sandler, with Contrasto Armonico conducted by Marco Vitale. If you want my advice, that CD is where you should start to appreciate Handel's musical craft.

But then, this DVD does have its moments of visual loveliness ...

This is that rare example of what eventuates when unpretentious experts with great talent get together to produce something wonderful.

Christopher Hogwood is present, to conduct this music with his usual clarity, strength and taste (Gardiner and Pinnock being his only peers.) Every baroque opera DVD release seems to have Christie at the helm, who often lets some scrappy and sonically messy orchstral performances get through. I'm hoping Sir Christopher Hogwood is utilised for many more baroque/classical opera productions.)

The sets and costumes in this are truly beautiful. The dancing is awe inspiring (as opposed to the hackneyed 'awesome') and the singing, casting and acting is just perfect.

Herr Handel provides that oh so important blueprint, the score, and the brilliant cast and crew who worked on this provide the rest.

To think that something like this can be put together in the late 00s gives me some faith in humanity. Perfection. Heaven on earth (and not a Disney or Eurotrash or P.C. "heaven"). Highest recommendation. Buy it! Let's reward these people - you could buy so much other rubbish with your money - it's best that it goes to all involved in this project.