Handel’s Acis and Galatea is essentially a gentle pastorale. It gets a bit more dramatic in the second act with the appearance of the giant Polyphemus, but it still remains a romantic idyll concerned with the love between that classic combination: a nymph, Galatea, and a shepherd, Acis.
Opera Atelier’s production, directed by Marshall Pynkoski and currently playing at the Elgin Theatre, is at its best when it respects this. Beautiful singing from Meghan Lindsay as Galatea and Antonin Rondepierre as Acis is enhanced by the sparing interventions of the Puck-like Damon (Blaise Rantoanina) and the corps de ballet, unusually (for Opera Atelier) clad in vivid pale pastel colours of a kind that Handel most definitely never saw. The first act goes splendidly along these lines with some fine singing from the choir (The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, singing from the boxes) and Tafelmusik on fine form. I’m not convinced the pasteboard sheep are necessary, but they don’t detract too much either.
Where it goes somewhat awry is at the start of Act 2 with the entrance of Polyphemus. This is clearly intended to be comic as the giant lumbers heavily across the stage, but here the production rather overdoes it. There is unnecessary slapstick from the dancers and more visual schtick. There’s plenty enough of the right kind of humour in the music to make this superfluous. To make matters worse, on Saturday it was the one moment of the evening when the chorus rather lost their place, becoming a bit ragged in the tricky fugue like “No Joy Shall Last.”
Photo Credit: Bruce Zinger
Top to Bottom: Tenor Blaise Rantoanina as Damon with soprano Meghan Lindsay as Galatea and tenor Antonin Rondepierre as Acis in Opera Atelier’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea
But the moment passes, and it’s back to more gorgeous singing from Lindsay spiced with a touch of fire when she brushes off Polyphemus with her disdain for cannibalism! Rondepierre follows suit. Douglas Williams stomps and blusters effectively enough as the giant. It’s not a terribly sympathetic part and he doesn’t try to make it so, but he’s reasonably restrained. Elegance and taste are the touchstones. Even the climactic scene where Acis is crushed by a giant rock is understated – there’s not a trace of Roadrunner cartoons. The final transformation/apotheosis of Acis into a fountain is rather beautifully done reinforcing the wisdom of using a subtle single backdrop broken only by the entrance to Galatea’s domain.
The orchestral playing throughout is excellent. There are some fine moments like the woodwinds in Galatea’s first act aria “Hush, ye pretty warbling quire!” which also features a pair of rather fetching doves. Christopher Bagan, making his main stage debut, conducts judiciously. He gives the music room to be beautiful without letting things drag at all.
All in all, this is a very satisying show that packs a lot of fine music and a fair bit of visual interest into a short 90 minutes or so. It’s at its best when Handel, Meghan Lindsay and Antonin Rondepierre are allowed to shine and only falters when the humour gets a bit heavy handed.
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Formerly a management consultant and ehealth guru, John’s interests in the classical arts range from recitals to straight theatre via opera and other classical vocal genres. He is particularly interested in the intersection of Indigenous issues and the arts.
