Page 326 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

3 June 2019

HANDEL: ACIS AND GALATEA (THE SIXTEEN/HARRY

CHRISTOPHERS) 4.5*

The Sixteen brings intimacy and lightness of touch.

by Alexandra Coghlan

Composers: Handel

Compositions: Acis and Galatea
Performers: The Sixteen/Harry Christophers

Catalogue Number: Coro COR16169 (2CD)

Last autumn Christian Curnyn and the Early Opera

Company released an exceptionally fine Acis and
Galatea on Chandos. Do we really need another

account of Handel’s early pastoral? In a word, yes. The difference between the two
is marked. If Curnyn’s account comes bounding into the ear covered in sweat and
stage-makeup, then Christophers’ is a concert-hall creation. If that makes it sound

lacklustre then that couldn’t be further from the truth. A close comparison actually
makes Curnyn’s swifter speeds seem almost frenetic, pushed a little hard compared

to the easy grace of Christophers’ impeccable band.

And then there’s the cast. Where Lucy Crowe’s Galatea is full-blooded and
womanly, Grace Davidson’s here is all crystalline beauty. If occasionally she lacks

Crowe’s warmth and swell through Handel’s long legatos it’s a price worth paying
for the sense of unworked innocence.

The men are a different story. It would be hard to top Curnyn’s trio of Allan
Clayton, Benjamin Hulett and Jeremy Budd. Budd returns here, promoted from

Coridon to Acis. Lighter and less heroic he’s an attractive foil for Davidson, but
his contribution to the love triangle lacks energy. Stuart Young’s Polyphemus too
is more comic villain than true aggressor. I’m not certain that this approach – a

sophisticated divertissement rather than would-be-opera – doesn’t suit it better,
especially under Christophers’ light-touch direction.

325