Acis and Galatea – The Sixteen in Concert

July 2022
The Theatre on the Lake

The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s greatest ensembles and a total commitment to the music it performs is its greatest distinction. Famed for its interpretations of some of Handel’s most loved works, The Sixteen perform his pastoral opera – a tale of love, tragedy and liberation. The libretto by John Gay, tells of the eternal love between the mortal shepherd Acis and goddess Galatea and how it is doomed by the jealous cyclops Polyphemus.

Handel’s music beautifully demonstrates the pain and love in such beautiful, dramatic choruses as ‘Wretched lovers!’ and the grief felt by Galatea in ‘Must I my Acis still bemoan’.

Five singers and nine instrumentalists without a conductor feature in this intimate concert, identical to the musical forces Handel used at its premiere in 1718.

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