From Birmingham
THE BIRMINGHAM STUDIO SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Leader, FRANK CANTELL. Conducted by JOSEPH LEWIS
GALATEA is a sea-nymph whom the shepherd Acis has wooed and won.
The giant Polyphemus comes on the scene. He covets Galatea and declaims in a preliminary Recitative about his feelings. He melodramatically declares that the god of Love has ' stabbed him to the heart,' and in the Air that follows, ' O rudd er than the cherry,' sings the praises of Galatea's beauty. The words are these :—
Recit.
I rage—I melt—I burn ;
The feeble god has stabbed me to the heart. Thou trusty pine, -
Prop of my godlike steps, I lay thee by ! Bring me a hundred reeds of decent growth. To make a pipe for my capacious mouth ; In soft enchanting accents let me breathe Sweet Galatea's beauty, and my love.
Air.
O ruddier than the cherry ! O sweeter than the berry !
0 nymph, more bright Than moonshine night,
Like kidlings, blithe and merry ; Ripe as the melting cluster, No lily has such lustre :
Yet hard to tame
As raging flame,
And fiereo as storms that bluster !