Composer: George Frideric Handel
Performer: Aaron Sheehan, Teresa Wakim, Douglas Williams, Jason McStoots, Zachary Wilder, Amanda Forsythe, Boston Early Music Festival Vocal Ensemble, Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble
Conductor: Paul O’Dette, Stephen Stubbs
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 777877-2
Release: 2015
Size: 629 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Acis and Galatea
Act I
01. Sinfonia
02. Oh, the pleasures of the plain (Chorus)
03. Accompagnato: Ye verdant plains (Galatea)
04. Aria: Hush, ye pretty warbling quire (Galatea)
05. Aria: Where shall I seek the charming fair (Acis)
06. Recitative: Stay, shepherd, stay (Damon)
07. Aria: Shepherd, what art thou pursuing (Damon)
08. Recitative: Lo! here my love (Acis)
09. Aria: Love in her eyes sits playing (Acis)
10. Recitative: Oh! didst thou know the pains of absent love (Galatea)
11. Aria: As when the dove (Galatea)
12. Duet: Happy we! (Acis, Galatea)
Act II
13. Wretched lovers (Chorus)
14. Accompagnato: I rage! (Polyphemus)
15. Aria: O ruddier than the cherry (Polyphemus)
16. Recitative: Whither, fairest, art thou running (Polyphemus, Galatea)
17. Aria: Cease to beauty to be suing (Polyphemus)
CD 02
Acis and Galatea
Act II
01. Aria: Would you gain the tender creature (Coridon)
02. Recitative: His hideous love (Acis)
03. Aria: Love sounds th’alarm (Acis)
04. Aria: Consider, fond shepherd (Damon)
05. Recitative: Cease, oh cease, thou gentle youth (Galatea)
06. Trio: The flocks shall leave (Galatea, Acis, Polyphemus)
07. Accompagnato: Help, Galatea (Acis)
08. Mourn, all ye muses (Chorus)
09. Aria: Must I my Acis still bemoan (Galatea, Chorus)
10. Recitative: ‘Tis done (Galatea)
11. Aria: Heart, the seat of soft delight (Galatea)
12. Galatea, dry thy tears (Chorus)
Sarei troppo felice, HWV 157
13. Sarei troppo felice
14. Se al pensier dar mai potro
15. Clori, schernita Clori
16. Giusto Ciel se non ho sorte
17. Ah! Che un cieco ho per guida
Both Acis and Galatea and the cantata Sarei troppo felice heard here represent decisive turning points in Handel’s career. The Italian cantata came at the beginning of the one and half decades spent by Handel in the service of various patrons. Acis and Galatea marks the highpoint of this phase and therefore, like the cantata before it, clearly renders recognizable the musical means available to him in the private ensembles of his employers. Moreover, Acis and Galatea contains the musical and textual seeds of the English oratorio, which after 1742 completely supplanted opera compositions.
The cantata is sung by Amanda Forsythe.