Page 322 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

5 February 2019

Handel: Acis and Galatea (Coro) *****

Youthful zeal and translucent intimacy inform every page of Handel’s pastoral
entertainment, Acis and Galatea, as they do this airborne performance by the

skeleton cast of The Sixteen under director Harry Christophers.

The plot is from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, its colourful escapades adapted for

Handel by John Gay of Beggar’s Opera fame, and the music is free, easy and

gloriously quirky.

With only five singers and nine instrumentalists, and lightness of rhythmic step,

Christophers gives the narrative a freedom that is fresh and teasing on the ear
and uplifting in every sense.

There is complete symbiosis between the characterful soloists, the rich and

seamless continuo, and those tantalisingly whimsical instrumental obligatos that
give scintillating illumination to such famous arias as “O Ruddier than the

Cherry.” - Ken Walton

Ken Walton

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