Handel: Acis and Galatea Vocal & Song Coro Records

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL

Acis and Galatea

ACT ONE

Sinfonia

3:20

Chrous: O, the pleasure of the plains!

5:41

Accompagnato: Galatea - Ye verdant plains

0:44

Air: Galatea - Hush, ye pretty warbling quire!

6:11

Air: Acis - Where shall I seek the charming fair?

3:31

Recitative: Damon - Stay, shepherd, stay!

4:41

Air: Damon - Shepherd, what art thou pursuing?

Recitative: Acis - Lo, here my love

6:20

Air: Acis - Love in her eyes sits playing

8.

Recitative: Galatea - Oh, didst thou know the pains

5:57

Air: Galatea - As when the dove

9.

Duet: Galatea, Acis - Happy we!

2:51

ACT TWO

10.

Chorus - Wretched lovers!

4:06

11.

Accompagnato: Polyphemus - I rage - I melt - I burn!

1:14

12.

Air: Polyphemus - O ruddier than the cherry

3:03

13.

Recitative: Polyphemus, Galatea - Whither, fairest

1:03

14.

Air: Polyphemus - Cease to beauty to be suing

5:18

15.

Air: Coridon - Would you gain the tender creature

4:57

16.

Recitative: Acis - His hideous love

4:52

Air: Acis - Love sounds th'alarm

17.

Air: Damon - Consider, fond shepherd

6:34

18.

Recitative: Galatea - Cease, oh cease

0:26

19.

Trio: Galatea, Acis, Polyphemus: The flocks shall leave the mountains

2:18

20.

Accompagnato: Acis - Help, Galatea!

1:16

21.

Chorus: Mourn, all ye muses!

3:11

22.

Solo & Chorus: Galatea - Must I my Acis still bemoan

4:09

Recitative: Galatea - 'Tis done!

23.

Air: Galatea - Heart, the seat of soft delight

3:48

24.

Chorus: Galatea, dry thy tears

3:12

89:03

Solo: Jeremy Budd Acis - tenor

Solo: Grace Davidson Galatea - soprano

Solo: Stuart Young Polyphemus - bass

Solo: Mark Dobell Damon - tenor

Solo: Simon Berridge Coridon - tenor

Orchestra: The Sixteen

Conductor: Harry Christophers

Performance *** Recording ***

“… he [Christophers] keeps the delightful score bouncing merrily along; the instrumentalists supply expert playing… Grace Davidson’s Galetea offers a small but pretty soprano and Jeremy Budd’s Acis is crisply articulated and emotionally engaged, while Stuart Young enjoys the comic-grotesque possibilities of the giant Polyphemus …”

George Hall – BBC Music magazine – May 2019

“…It is the well-balanced madrigalian choruses and ensembles that come off best…The politeness of the opening chorus is a feature of music of the solo singing…As is not uncommon in Acis, honours here are stolen by the splendidly virile but not entirely unsympathetic Polyphemus of Stuart Young, while the pure cantabile lines of Grace Davidsons’s sweetly vulnerable Galatea also give much pleasure.”

Opera magazine – June 2019

"The Sixteen brings intimacy and lightness of touch." ****½

Alexandra Coghlan - Limelightmagazine.com.au - 3 June 2019

"... there is no doubt that the smaller forces bring not only greater clarity and sweetness but also uplifting drafts of clean air that seem entirely appropriate to the work. There is greater human vulnerability and sympathy in the choruses too... they [The Sixteen] offer an uncomplicated vocal beauty and intimacy which, together with that of orchestra, seems appropriate to the nature of a piece more closely related to Handel's early Italian cantatas and serenatas than to his more recent London operas... Christophers conducts with style and skill, and the little orchestra plays wonderfully for him, highlighting details that can often go past unnoticed..."

Lindsay Kemp - Gramophone magazine - April 2019

“Christophers uses stylish Handelians and “consort” singers who blend to perfection in this intimate “chamber” performance. The big success here is Simon Berridge’s rotund-sounding, menacing Polyphemus, but Grace Davidson’s virginal Galatea gives immense pleasure… Mark Dobell delivers a mellifluous Consider, Fond Shepherd, one of Handel’s loveliest arias.”

Hugh Canning – The Sunday Times (Culture magazine) – 3 February 2019

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