Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Antonio Florio

I listened to bass, Christopher Purve sang aria “Fra l’ombre e gl’orrori” in the Emmanuelle Haim’s 10th anniversary concert. I just loved his voice and loved how he sang it. And I loved this aria by Handel very much. It amazed me how it had such extreme range of high notes and low notes right next to each other without breaking the wonderful melodious stream of the aria. Since then, I wanted to listen to Handel’s cantata/serenata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo which contains this aria.

This production was orchestrated by Cappella della Pieta de’ Turchini and conducted by Antonio Florio. Their orchestration was lively and attentive with very good sound intonations and colors.

They made this serenata into operatic production. The stage directions by Davide Livermore who also did the set design were very interesting. The stage looked like old, run-down abandoned room with the floor covered by the wave stream-trailed sea sands that looked like it has just rushed into the room from the two big back entrances over the period of many years.  The wooden room walls are distorted. And the various images that matched each scene were shown on the back walls behind the room walls through entrances and windows. The whole set looked like gothic as much as mythical.

The story is based on the mythological story about the lovers, Aci and Galatea who are threatened by tyrannical giant, Polifermo. He loves Galatea and tries to have her while constantly threatening them with forces. 

There were only three characters in this serenata but besides the three singers who played these roles, this production also used the doubles played by the mime actors. These actors who dressed and moved as the mirror projections of the singers were used to amplify the emotions of the singers at each scene. They had many detailed acting coordination between the singers and the actors. This type of stage direction can backfire but this production did it tastefully.

Bass, Antonio Abete played Polifemo. Musically, this is great bass role. His wonderful but dry higher bass voice didn’t have warmth but had dramatic intensity, which suited this violent character well. I previously saw him when he played Seneca in William Christie’s L’Incolonazione di Poppea. He tended to sing much faster than usual bass singers. This also gave the characters he plays such highlighted intensity. 

Soprano, Ruth Rosique played Aci, the shepherd. I first listened to her when she sang Drusilla in L’Incolonazione di Poppea by Harry Bicket. The beautiful texture of her voice was memorable. She also impressed me with her beautiful virtuosity and rich singing expression when she sang Aristea in the pasticcio album, O’limpeade conducted by Markellos Chryssicos. She has round rich soprano voice with wonderful vocal flexibility. Her voice reminds me the combination of the young freshness of Magdalena Kozena and the gracefulness of Victoria de los Angeles.

And she sang Aci very well. She’s powerful singer as much as Sara Mingardo.

Contralto, Sara Mingardo played Galatea who is half ninfa and half divine. As always, she sang her role amazingly. She’s exceptional artist whose interpretation of music is humanly rich and deep. Her mature mesmerizing singing might sound effortless to listeners. And yet, you just feel that she puts so much technique into her singing to achieve the effects. She’s great singer.

Handel was only 23 years old when he presented this work for the wedding cerebration. The following year, he wrote his first successful opera Agrippina.

His Agrippina is wonderfully written opera. But I prefer this serenata to Agrippina simply because the music is more intimate and heart-felt.

By listening to these earliest works by him, it amazed me to realize the fact that genius is not simply made but be born.  Handel was genius. His music is filled with the sheer overwhelming beauty, psychological sophistication and affectionate human warmth.