Acis and Galatea (HWV 49)[Sold Out!]

Baroque Opera in 2 Acts by Georg Friederich Händel

14~16/10 (Friday to Sunday);8pm Dom Pedro V Theatre Tickets: MOP 250, 200, 150

Music: Georg Friederich Händel (1685–1759)
Libretto: John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Hughes

Conductor: Aaron Carpenè
Director: Stefano Vizioli
Choreographer and Assistant Director: Gloria Giordano
Set Designer and Video Artist: Lorenzo Cutuli
Assistant to Set Designer: Andrea de Micheli
Costume Designer: Annamaria Heinreich
Lighting Designer: Nevio Cavina
Video: Sergio Metalli
Costumes and Curtain Rental: Teatro di Pisa

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Shanghai Opera House Chorus

Characters and Cast:
Galatea: Yulia van Doren, soprano
Acia: John McVeigh, tenor
Damon: Andrew Bidlack, tenor
Polyphemus: Jacques-Greg Belobo, bass-baritone

With surtitles in Chinese, Portuguese and English

Acis and Galatea (1718) was one of Händel’s most popular works, revived no fewer than eight times and performed at least seventy times by the middle of the 18^th century. It was also one of the few large scale-works to remain popular after his death: Mozart re-orchestrated it in 1788, Mendelssohn performed it in 1828, and Meyerbeer even planned a staged performance of it in 1857. The story comes from Dryden’s translation of the thirteenth book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which appeared in London in 1717. It was in fact Händel’s second setting of the myth, for the first, a serenata entitled Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, had been composed in Naples in 1708, probably for the wedding of the Duke of Alvito. Acis and Galatea is first mentioned as being a ‘Masque’ in the Duke’s catalogue of 1720. The heyday of the Masque form had been nearly a century before when mime, music, dancing, spoken dialogue and lavish spectacle had been combined by figures such as Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones to make court entertainments of great splendour.

Duration: approximately 1 hour and 35 minutes, including one interval