Unalloyed Delight: Handel’s Acis & Galatea at Opera Holland Park

Acis and Galatea (Bärenreiter Edition) 

Composed by George Frederick Handel 

Libretto by John Gay after Ovid’s Metamorphoses 

Cast and Production staff: 

Acis: Anthony Gregory; Galatea: Elizabeth Karani; Polyphemus: Chuma Sijeqa; Ruairi Bowen; Director: Louise Bakker; Lighting Designer: Johanne Jensen; Choreographer: Merry Holden; Lighting Programmer: James Smellie; members of the City of London Sinfonia / Mchael Papadopoulos (conductor). 

Opera Holland Park, Kensington, London, Friday, July 19, 2024  

This seems to be quite the year for Opera Holland Park: a revelatory Puccini Edgar, a powerful coupling of Wolf-Ferrari (Il segreto di Susanna) and Leoncavallo (Pagliacci), and now the company’s first essay at a Handel opera. Acis and Galatea was a triumph, overseen musically by the young and talented conductor Michael Papadopoulos, encouraging the reduced City of London Sinfonia to markedly stylish playing. The body of strings (3:3:2:2:1) was supplemented by pairs of oboes and recorders, bassoon, theorbo and harpsichord –   a rich continuo group. 

Director Louise Bakker was assistant director for the magnificent Vixen at OHP recently; on her own ticket here in Handel’s Acis, she provided colour and magic. The stage was divided into areas: a ‘temple,’ a grassy knoll, a swing. This was pastoralism in its very essence – it almost feels de rigeur to mention the word ‘bower’  – with the colours transporting into the world of idealised fantasy. Designer Alyson Cummins transports us to a collective unconscious idyll with all the magic of the Regents Park classic open air stagings of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. All this is aided and abetted by the lighting under Lighting Designer Johanne Jensen, who in turn herself is aided and abetted by a ’Lighting Programmer,’ James Smellie. 

There was a ‘chorus’ of eight, bracketed together as ‘ensemble,’ as active a chorus as I have seen (and very amusing when dressed as sheep – the use of the full performance and audience space was brilliantly amusing here, the antithesis of the grizzly ending of Pag the other day). The ensemble enetered at the beginning, adding movement and dance to the spectacle; later, they provided huge contrasts, from the exuberance of the choral riposte to the duet ’Happy we’ juxtaposed with the miraculously slowly uncurling counterpoint of ’Wretched lovers,’ underpinned by the anguished oboes of Owen Dennis and Matthew Draper. 

This version of Handel’s Acis and Galatea dispenses with the part of Corydon. Handel set Ovid’s take three times: as a cantata, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, HWV 78 (1708), the masque Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a (1718) and the serenata Acis and Galatea, HWV49b (1732), although even here there are differing versions: the Teatro Municipale’s performance of the version ’for Senesino’ of HWV 78 used an edition by Fabrizio Longo, Raffaele Pe and Luca Guglielmi: a performance in Piacenza in November 2020 can be seen and heard on operastreaming.com here 

The instrumental group, members of the City of London Sinfonia, was on sparkling form. The recorder pipngs of ‘Hush, ye pretty warbling quire!’ were delightful (Rachel Becket and Catherine Latham). That particular air is sung by Galatea, the pure-voiced Elizabeth Karani (who previously sang Musetta in the Young Artist performance of Bohème at OHP in 2016 and later in 2023, and Susanna Figaro in 2021). Karani’s suave phrasing (and perfectly in-tune singing) made her performance the stand-out of the evening. Her decorations in the A1 section of ‘As when the dove’ were nicely tasteful. 

That particular air precedes the duet ‘Happy we,’ as joyous music as Handel ever penned and which found Karani beautifully matched by her Acis, Anthony Gregory (a pity there was so much stage activity here; Bakker could perhaps learn less is more and cut down some of the wealth of stage movement throughout in a revival). A former ENO Harewood Artist, Gregory makes his OHP debut with this role. He is capable of real Innigkeit (’Love on her eyes is playing’), tortured emotion (the Accompagnato, ‘Help, Galatea’); and yet he can at other times project true Handelian eroism.  

As Damon, Ruairi Bowen made a most commendable OHP debut. His ’Shepherd, what art thou persuing’ was excellent, characterised by real dynamic subtlety (some lovely sudden pianissimos); he clearly has a fine career in front of him. His most recent engagement seems to be Evangelist St John Passion in Melbourne, a role which would clearly suit his voice well. 

Which only leave the baddie, Polyphemus, clad in what looks like a onesie rent open like a banana split, with a single eye at the top to represent the cyclopian element. It’s funny and yet within the remit of the production’s ethos. Chuma Sijeqa took the role here (he was the Poacher in OHP’s classic Vixen of 2021, although sadly not on the performance I attended; he was however a fine Climene in Irish National Opera’s recent, stunning, Vivaldi L’Olimpiade at the Linbury). Sijeqa’s ‘I rage … O ruddier than the cherry’ was an evening high point, his voice strong and clear, his dramatic take firm. 

On the hottest day of the year so, the breezes that occasionally wafted through the OHP tent were massively welcome; the first night of Acis clashed, of course, with the First Night of this year’s Proms (a packed Albert Hall plus television lights must surely have been a sweat bath).  Do catch this Acis, which must surely be the first of many forays into Handel opera by Opera Holland Park.