Violin and Musical Direction
Violin
Violin
Violin
Violin
Violin
Violin
Violin
Violin
Viola
Viola
Violoncello
Violoncello
Double Bass
Double Bass
oboe and recorder
Bassoon
Trumpet
Trumpet
Lute
Harpsichord & Organ
Aci
Galatea
Polifemo
Director
Design
Choreography
Lighting Design and Stage Management
Costume Design
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Visual Performance
Puppetry Mechanist and Rigging
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Puppet Construction
Costume Seamstress
Galatea, a daughter of the sea god Nereus, is in love with Aci, son of Faunus, the god of forests and fields. Their love is threatened by the giant Cyclops Polifemo, who is passionately obsessed with Galatea. When Galatea mocks and rejects him, he warns that he will impose his will by force. Aci bravely defends Galatea, but as Polifemo’s anger grows, the two realize that their being together will cause each other unbearable anguish. Galatea flees back into the sea, but finding no way to avert the impending catastrophe there either, she returns to Aci. Enraged by the sight of the loving couple united in their resistance against the inevitable suffering they face, Polifemo strikes Aci dead with a boulder. Galatea calls on her father to transform Aci into a river that may run into the sea. Forced to witness the reunion of Aci and Galatea in the ocean, Polifemo realizes the magnitude of his loss and the depth of his own loneliness.
George Frideric Handel’s serenata, written in 1708 and inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is more than a pastoral love story: taking the struggle between mythical powers, nature, and human passion as a starting point, puppet creator, designer, and director Janni Younge—whose poetic visual language has won her worldwide acclaim—and her South-African company expose universal and highly topical issues related to the fragile relationship between humans and the natural world. The Baroque specialists of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and a group of acclaimed soloists take on the musical side of this production, which is being created specifically for the Pierre Boulez Saal.
Introductory Essays and the full libretto can be found in our online program
Supported by the Kulturverwaltung des Landes Berlin
