Synopsis
Act I
The chorus of shepherds sings of the sweetness of a peaceful pastoral life. But the nymph Galatea, troubled by the absence of Acis, implores the birds to still their song and bring back her beloved. The young shepherd, also consumed by longing, neglects his flock and pays little heed to Damon, his prudent friend, who warns him of the dangers of passion. When at last the lovers are reunited, their joy bursts forth in songs of love, echoed by the shepherds and nymphs in a wave of radiant happiness.
Act II
The chorus grows suddenly grave, sensing tragedy: a distant rumble announces the approach of the giant Polyphemus. Enamoured of Galatea, the monster clumsily tries to soften his voice and manners, but the nymph, faithful to her love, firmly rejects his advances. Damon vainly attempts to temper the Cyclops’s fury, while Acis, despite Corydon’swarnings, arms himself with courage to defend his beloved. In a scene of luminous tenderness, the two lovers forget all danger and renew their vows beneath nature’s powerless gaze. But jealousy seizes the giant: with a boulder, he crushes Acis. In despair, Galatea weeps over her lover, then grants his final wish — by her divine power she transforms him into a clear spring, whose eternal murmur forever sings of love’s fidelity and its consoling power.
A cherished work
Acis and Galatea enjoyed extraordinary popularity in the eighteenth century: no other work by Handel was performed more often during his lifetime — over seventy performances are documented. Unusually for the time, the masque was published in full, with overture, choruses and recitatives, and would later inspire orchestrations by Mozart (1788) and Meyerbeer (1857), after being conducted by Mendelssohn in 1828.
Life at Cannons
Around 1717, Handel spent over a year at Cannons, the magnificent estate of the Duke of Chandos near London. The Duke, enriched by the War of the Spanish Succession and maritime speculation, maintained a princely household with his own chapel, choir of men and boys, and orchestra—without violas, but with flutes and oboes. Directed by John Christopher Pepusch, the ensemble included the violinist Alessandro Bitti and Francesco Scarlatti, brother of Alessandro.
Invited without obligation, Handel found at Cannons a welcome respite from the pressures of the London operatic scene. There he composed the Chandos Anthems, several concertos, and two dramatic works: Haman and Mordecai (later Esther) and Acis and Galatea, premiered in the spring of 1718.
The English masque
The libretto, inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, was probably written by John Gay, possibly with contributions from Pope and Dryden. Handel revisited a subject he had already treated in Naples in 1708 in his cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo.
The English masque—a form born of the French court ballet and the Italian serenata—combined dances, songs, dialogues and choruses on pastoral themes. Purcell had brought it to perfection; Handel extended its spirit with unmatched grace and refinement. This genre, more national in character than Italian opera, became in the eighteenth century a true expression of British musical identity.
Southern light and British spirit
A radiant pastoral work, Acis and Galatea unites English poetry with Mediterranean sensuality. The limited forces of the Duke’s orchestra spurred Handel’s imagination: he wrote music of crystalline clarity, elegiac warmth, and spring-like freshness.
After a hybrid revision in 1732, Handel returned to the original version for the 1743 publication.
After a hybrid revision in 1732, Handel returned to the original version for the 1743 publication.
The overture, in the manner of a concerto grosso, leads directly into the opening chorus, whose bass lines imitate the drone of shepherds’ bagpipes. Galatea sings her love in birdlike phrases, while the Cyclops Polyphemus appears—more comical than terrifying. One of the work’s summits is the trio The flocks shall leave the mountains, where the serenity of the lovers contrasts with the fury of the giant. The death of Acis is no tragedy but a transfiguration: Galatea transforms him into a pure spring.
A work of rare transparency and tenderness, Acis and Galatea reveals another facet of Handel — that of a pastoral poet, both noble and profoundly humane.
The myth and its charm
Ancient tradition knows two Galateas: one, daughter of Nereus and Doris, belongs to the great family of the Nereids, benevolent sea deities of the Aegean; the other, a pastoral heroine of Sicily, embodies the whiteness and purity of sea foam — her name deriving from the Greek galaktos, meaning “milk.” It is this second Galatea whom Ovid immortalised in Book XIII of the Metamorphoses, as the eternal symbol of unattainable desire.