Acis and Galatea

Acis and Galatea, one of Handel's most enduring works, has undergone numerous arrangements, including one by Mozart in 1788 at the behest of Baron Gottfried van Swieten. The work is presented here in its original version from 1718, the same one that Mozart would tailor seventy years later to the musical tastes of his time. But his very first encounter with the opera was in June 1764, at a benefit concert at London's Ranelagh Gardens. The wunderkind played several of his own compositions in a programme that included Acis and Galatea and Alexander's Feast (another Handel work that Mozart would later adapt for van Swieten in Vienna). The plot ? Galatea, a nymph, is in love with the shepherd Acis, and he with her. But Polyphemus, a cyclops, is also in love with Galatea. She rejects his advances, and Acis defies the giant, despite the advice of their friends. Enraged by the couple's displays of love, Polyphemus crushes Acis with a stone. Galatea, mourning her dying lover, uses her divine powers to transform him into an eternal fountain from which a bubbling stream flows through the fields he so loved, thus rendering him immortal.