ACIS AND GALATEA by George Handel, directed by Marshall Pynkoski, conducted by David Fallis, Thomas Macleay, Mireille Asselin, João Fernandes and Lawrence Wiliford (Opera Atelier). At the Elgin Theatre (189 Yonge). Opens Saturday (October 30) and runs to November 7, October 30, November 2-3 and 5-6 at 7:30 pm, matinee November 7 at 3 pm. $33-$146. 416-872-5555. See listing.
For the past quarter-century, Opera Atelier has been dusting the cobwebs off works from the baroque and early classical periods.
The productions, directed by Marshall Pynkoski and choreographed by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, have been visually gorgeous, musically rich and a lesson in historic performance style.
For the company’s new version of Handel’s pastoral opera Acis And Galatea, they decided to do something more: explore the sensual and dark side of a work that’s usually seen as a charming rococo vision of shepherds and shepherdesses.
“Acis is one of Opera Atelier’s springboard works,” says Pynkoski, whose passion for the company’s work is obvious whenever he talks about a production. “We’ve previous presented it in Mozart’s richer re-orchestration and later in a semi-staged concert version. This time we want to go beyond the focus on 18th-century style, toward a more dramatic interpretation of the work.
“Style gives you a strong foundation, but you can only be obsessed with style for so long before you hit a brick wall.
“As a company we’re now trying to tell the clearest story possible, get to its essence by using a simplified period style.”
In the case of the Handel opera, that story is of the shepherd Acis and the nereid (sea-nymph) Galatea, with the giant Polyphemus becoming the third point of a love triangle. When the giant kills Acis, Galatea turns her dead lover into a fountain.
“The work is now usually seen as adorable and saccharine,” sighs Pynkoski, slowing down his rapid-paced analysis. “But for all its charm, there’s something deep and elemental about the desires expressed in it. If you look closely at the libretto, you realize that whatever’s sweet about the piece has an ironic edge. Handel knew he was dealing with a sensual, erotic story.”
Citing lines from the text that illustrate Galatea’s passionate nature, the director points out that water goddesses are aggressively amorous in Greek mythology. He clearly knows the entire libretto by heart.
“She’s in Arcadia, the shepherd world, because she’s obsessed with a beautiful young man. Looking at their relationship from that viewpoint pushes the story in a troubling direction.”
In the Opera Atelier production, Acis is the only human onstage. Even the figure of Damon, often presented as another shepherd, becomes an amoral spirit whom Pynkoski compares to the mischief-making Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“Acis is surrounded by demigods and elemental forces who use him for their own ends. We know from myths that when humans become sexually involved with gods, they’re annihilated.
“It’s like a child putting a butterfly in a jar, feeding it and not wanting it to die, but of course it does. Gods, irresistibly drawn to creatures who are finite and understand death the way immortals don’t, can’t help but hurt humans when they interact with them.”
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
