Aci 318s 14

Fabio Bonizzoni returns with his long-awaited new recording of Handel’s 'Aci, Galatea e Polifemo'. Who better to team up with Bonizzoni, performing the role of the luckless shepherd Aci, than scintillating soprano Roberta Invernizzi. Her captivating contributions to Glossa's Handel series with La Risonanza as well as her 'I Viaggi di Faustina' have drawn powerful critical plaudits, including more than one disc of the Month.

This is an excellent recording of Handel's "other" Acis – an Italian cantata he composed during a visit to Naples ten years before he wrote the more famous English masque Acis and Galatea. Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d'Astrée play with pathos, imagination, and impeccable style, never forgetting that, in a work for such intimate forces, maintaining musical momentum and variety is the key to success. Sandrine Piau (Aci), Sara Mingardo (Galatea), and Laurent Naouri (Polifemo) are perfectly cast; Piau's crystalline soprano and Mingardo's warm, full-bodied mezzo blend wonderfully in their duets, sounding as if they have sung together for years, and both of them deliver spectacular solo moments.

Based on the well-know mythological story narrated by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, this is a classical tale of jealousy and love. The giant Polyphemus tries to force his attention on the fair sea-nymph Galatatea, who is in love with shepard Aci. When mad jealousy drives Polyphemus to kill his rival, Galatea, asks her father Nereus to turn Aci’s bood into a river so that, flowing into the sea, he will join her forevermore. It appears this serenade was composed for a marriage in the Neapolitan nobility to celebrate this wedding, Handel wrote this serenade for his new patrons. This is undoubtedly one of Handel’s masterpieces.