Aci, Galatea e
Polifemo Lucie Skeaping presents a concert performance of Handel's Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. This serenata a tre is a miniature opera in all but name, written for the Duke of Alvito's wedding during the composer's stay in Italy, in 1708. Ten years later Handel recast the work in the more familiar English setting of Acis and Galatea.
The story is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which the lovelorn cyclops Polyphemus jealously destroys the happiness of the sea nymph who spurns him, and her shepherd lover Acis. The concert was recorded last month at St George's Bristol.
The English Concert, director Andrew Manze (violin)