Haendel, Acis and Galatea

Conceived as a miniature opera to be performed for private entertainment, Handel’s Acis and Galatea was adored by the composer’s contemporaries, then reworked and re-orchestrated several times, giving the opera new life. Acis the shepherd and Galatea the nymph fall in love, but Galatea is also being pursued by the cyclops Polyphemus. When the latter finds out about the two lovers, he kills the young Acis in a rage, but Acis is then transformed into a river, becoming eternal thanks to the power of love.

It is well known that Leonardo García-Alarcón is never short of ideas, enthusiasm or energy. Playing with the timbres of the Capella Mediterranea, he gives the strings of this first chorus the sound of a hurdy-gurdy. Here he plays with the silences; there, he sharpens the violin attacks or works on the richness of the lower strings. Always with a sense of bounce that brings a vibrant energy and sometimes makes Handel swing. At the heart of these simple melodies, a vibrant diversity of composition is revealed throughout, in the timbres, rhythms and accents.

Marc Dumont – Première Loge, February 2025

The rehearsal for this Acis and Galatea […] involving twenty-five musicians served as a test for Leonardo García-Alarcón. […] It proved particularly successful, both in terms of the cohesion of the performance and the flexibility and sensitivity with which the ensemble lent its colours to Alarcón, a composer inspired by human emotions.

Alain Cochard – Concert Classic November 2023

Is there any need to emphasise once again just how successful Leonardo García-Alarcón’s conducting is from start to finish? The intelligence and emotion with which he continually brings out every note of the score result in a performance that is flawless, one that carries the music and is carried by it.

Elodie Martinez – Opera Online, November 2023

Handel through one of his greatest works

When he arrived in Rome in 1707, the young Handel dazzled the elites of the holy city with his exceptional talent. He became the “fashionable” composer, and his fame grew so quickly that he was soon called to Naples, where he premiered his pastoral opera Aci, Galatea e Polifemo in July 1708 at the Court Theater in the Ducal Palace of Piedimonte Matese for a lavish wedding.
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A small opera originally intended for private performances, Acis and Galatea was Handel’s most frequently performed work during his lifetime. This masterpiece—a miniature drama, pastoral, or masque, it is difficult to define—underwent numerous revisions. It offers a brilliant synthesis of English and Italian styles, with da capo arias and significant contributions from the chorus. The plot comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which had already inspired Lully to write an opera (1686), and boldly blends comedy and tragedy. He gradually erases the transparent lightness of the Arcadian landscapes, where the love between the shepherd Acis and the nymph Galatea blossoms, in favor of a darker atmosphere: the young Acis is savagely killed by the cyclops Polyphemus, jealous of his love for Galatea. The mourning nymph, however, surrenders to peace and elevates her lost lover to the rank of god in the form of a spring that flows through the grove.

Leonardo García-Alarcón leads Cappella Mediterranea from the organ in this music that Mozart himself admired so much that he made a German version of it…

Cast

Charlotte Bowden, soprano – Galatea
Hugo Hymas (Ambronay) / Guy Cutting (Namur & Chantilly), tenor – Acis
Staffan Liljas, bass – Polyphemus
Valerio Contaldo, tenor – Damon

in Ambronay :
Maud Bessard Morandas, soprano
Leandro Marziotte, countre-tenor
Raphaël Hardmeyer, bass

Cappella Mediterranea
Chœur de Chambre de Namur (Namur & Chantilly)

Leonardo García-Alarcón, orguan and musical direction

Opéra royal de Versailles (January 2025)