What does the story of Acis and Galatea represent?
Acis and Galatea are characters from Greek mythology later associated together in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The episode tells of the love between the mortal Acis and the Nereid (sea-nymph) Galatea; when the jealous Cyclops Polyphemus kills Acis, Galatea transforms her lover into an immortal river spirit.
When was Acis and Galatea written?
1718
Acis and Galatea/Written
Handel composed Acis and Galatea in 1718 for a private performance at Cannons in Middlesex, where he was resident composer in the musical establishment of the Earl of Carnarvon, soon to be the Duke of Chandos.
Is Acis and Galatea an oratorio?
The work has been variously described as a serenata, a masque, a pastoral or pastoral opera, a “little opera” (in a letter by the composer while it was being written), an entertainment and by the New Grove Dictionary of Music as an oratorio. Acis and Galatea was the pinnacle of pastoral opera in England.
Who wrote Acis and Galatea?
George Frideric Handel
Acis and Galatea/Composers
Who killed Acis?
Galatea
Galatea and Acis used to mock Polyphemus’s songs of love for Galatea. Polyphemus caught them sleeping on a grassy hill, and killed Acis by crushing him under a huge rock. Acis’s blood formed a stream beneath the rock. Galatea turned it into a river and named it after him.
Who was ACIS?
Acis, in the Greek mythology of Ovid, the son of Faunus (Pan) and the nymph Symaethis. He was a beautiful shepherd of Sicily, the lover of the Nereid Galatea. His rival, Polyphemus the Cyclops, surprised them together and crushed him to pieces with a rock.
Who is Acis in Greek mythology?
Who is Polyphemus lover?
Polyphemus, in Greek mythology, the most famous of the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants), son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and the nymph Thoösa. According to Ovid in Metamorphoses, Polyphemus loved Galatea, a Sicilian Nereid, and killed her lover Acis.
What did Acis turn into?
Acis, in the Greek mythology of Ovid, the son of Faunus (Pan) and the nymph Symaethis. His blood, gushing forth from beneath, was metamorphosed by Galatea into a river bearing his name, Acis or Acinius, at the base of Mount Etna (the modern river Jaci). …
Who falls in love with Galatea?
Pygmalion
Galatea, however, loved the youth Acis. When Polyphemus discovered Acis and Galatea together, he crushed Acis to death with a boulder. Galatea is also the name, in some versions of the Pygmalion story, of the statue that Pygmalion creates and then falls in love with.
What influenced Handel to write Acis and Galatea?
Reinhard Keiser and Henry Purcell also served as influences, but overall the conception and execution of the work is wholly individual to Handel. Acis and Galatea was by far Handel’s most popular dramatic work and is his only stage work never to have left the opera repertory.
Why is Acis and Galatea so popular?
Acis and Galatea was by far Handel’s most popular dramatic work and is his only stage work never to have left the opera repertory. The opera has been adapted numerous times since its premiere, with a notable arrangement being made by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1788.
Acis and Galatea (HWV 49) is a musical work by George Frideric Handel with an English text by John Gay.
What are some good hymns by Georg Friedrich Händel?
Georg Friedrich Händel ACIS AND GALATEA (c. 1718) A Serenata; or Pastoral Entertainment Words by John Gay, Alexander Pope and John Hughes DRAMATIS PERSONAE Galatea (soprano) Acis (tenor) Damon (tenor) Polyphemus (bass) Chorus of Shepherds and Shepherdesses 1. Sinfonia 2. Chorus Oh, the pleasure of the plains! Happy nymphs and happy swains,