Acis and Galatea (Handel)
Year Cast ( Acis , Galatea , Damon , Polyphemus ) Conductor , Ensemble , and notes Label
1959 Peter Pears , Joan Sutherland , David Galliver , Owen Brannigan Adrian Boult Saint Anthony Singers , Philomusica of London Decca /London
1978 Robert Tear , Jill Gomez , Philip Langridge , Benjamin Luxon Sir Neville Marriner Academy & Chorus of St Martin in the Fields Decca
1978 Anthony Rolfe Johnson , Norma Burrowes , Martyn Hill , Willard White John Eliot Gardiner The English Baroque Soloists ( Cannons Version , 1718 ) Audio CD : DG Archiv Cat : 423406
1990 John Mark Ainsley , Claron McFadden , Rogers Covey-Crump , Michael George Robert King The King 's Consort with Robert Harre-Jones , alto Audio CD : Hyperion Cat : CDA 66361/2
1992 Jamie MacDougall , Barbara Bonney , Markus Schäfer , John Tomlinson Trevor Pinnock The English Concert and Choir W.A . Mozart Edition , ( K.566 , 1788 ) Audio CD : DG Archiv Cat : 435 792-2
1992 David Gordon , Dawn Kotoski , Glenn Siebert , Jan Opalach Gerard Schwarz Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorale Audio CD : Delos Cat : DE 3107
1999 Paul Agnew , Sophie Daneman , Patricia Petibon , Alan Ewing William Christie Les Arts Florissants Audio CD : Erato
2008 Nicholas Mulroy , Susan Hamilton , Thomas Hobbs , Matthew Brook John Butt Dunedin Consort ( Original Cannons Performing Version ( 1718 ) recorded : Greyfriars Kirk , Edinburgh , UK : 29 April - 2 May 2008 ) Audio CD and 24 bit download : Linn Records , Cat : CKD 319
2009 Charles Workman , Danielle de Niese , Paul Agnew , Matthew Rose Christopher Hogwood Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment ( Recording of a performance in the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden , March ) DVD : Opus Arte Cat . No . OA 1025D Blu-ray : Opus Arte OA BD7056D
2018 Allan Clayton , Lucy Crowe , Benjamin Hulett , Neal Davies Christian Curnyn , Early Opera Group Audio CD Chandos Records Cat : CHSA0404 ( 2 )
2019 Jeremy Budd , Grace Davidson , Mark Dobell , Stuart Young Harry Christophers , The Sixteen Audio CD Coro Records Cat : COR16169
Recordings
Acis and Galatea (HWV 49) is a musical work by George Frideric Handel with an English text by John Gay. The work has been variously described as a serenata, a masque, a pastoral or pastoral opera, a little opera (in a letter by the composer while it was being written), an entertainment and by the New Grove Dictionary of Music as an oratorio. The work was originally devised as a one-act masque which premiered in 1718. Handel later adapted the piece into a three-act serenata for the Italian opera troupe in London in 1732, which incorporated a number of songs (still in Italian) from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, his 1708 setting of the same story to different music. He later adapted the original English work into a two-act work in 1739. Acis and Galatea was the pinnacle of pastoral opera in England. Indeed, several writers, such as musicologist Stanley Sadie, consider it the greatest pastoral opera ever composed. As is typical of the genre, Acis and Galatea was written as a courtly entertainment about the simplicity of rural life and contains a significant amount of wit and self-parody. The secondary characters, Polyphemus and Damon, provide a significant amount of humor without diminishing the pathos of the tragedy of the primary characters, Acis and Galatea. The music of the first act is both elegant and sensual, while the final act takes on a more melancholy and plaintive tone. The opera was significantly influenced by the pastoral operas presented at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane during the early 18th century. Reinhard Keiser and Henry Purcell also served as influences, but overall the conception and execution of the work is wholly individual to Handel.