On his Italian journey, Handel not only composed sacred works for Rome, he also wrote a secular serenata for Naples: “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo”, a setting of the terrible Ovidian story about the spurned Cyclops Polyphemus and his beloved Acis. The serenata has now been published in the Halle Handel Edition.
The libretto of Aci, Galatea e Polifemo is based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses (XIII, 738–897) and is about the love between the sea nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis, who is destroyed by the Cyclops Polyphemus. The Cyclops had courted Galatea with threats and promises. She, however, remained true to her beloved Acis and turned down the monster. Polyphemus struck dead the young shepherd with a rock in jealous rage, and Galatea transformed his blood into a river, so that the lovers could be forever united in water.
Handel’s music emphasizes the personalities of the characters with an unerring sense; the role of Polifemo is particularly striking, and we encounter striking musical imagery throughout as, for example, in Aci’s aria “Qui l’augel da pianta in pianta”. The work is in the Italian style, and consists entirely of da capo arias, recitatives and a few ensemble scenes; there are no choruses or purely instrumental numbers.
The serenata was probably commissioned for the wedding of the Duca d’Alvito, Tolomeo Saverio Gallio, and Beatrice di Montemiletto, Principessa d’Acaja on 19 July 1708 in Naples. One clue suggesting this is Handel’s note “d’Alvito” at the end of his autograph manuscript. The reference to the commissioner being Donna Aurora Sanseverino Duchessa di Laurenzana, the bride’s aunt, came from John Mainwaring. The mysterious name “Donna Laura” is attributed by Vitali and Furnari (Göttinger Händel-Beiträge IV, Kassel 1991, pp. 41ff.) to the ageing Handel’s failing memory or to a misunderstanding on the part of Mainwaring. Another fact which would support Aurora Sanseverino as the commissioner was the allusion in the opening duet: “Sorge il dì, spunta l’aurora”. The Duchessa di Laurenzana had brought up the princess and was later involved in her niece’s wedding preparations. Handel completed the composition on 16 June 1708 in Naples. He used Roman paper which means that he might have begun the composition whilst he was still in Rome. The performance of the serenata probably took place in the Palazzo d’Alvito in Chiaia on the wedding day itself or during the following week. A further performance venue might have included the Palazzo Gaetani di Laurenzana in Naples.
After Handel had left Italy, a further performance of the serenata took place on 9 Dedember 1711 in the large hall of the Palazzo Laurenzana in Piedimonte under the title La Galatea. This was for the wedding celebrations of the son of Aurora Sanseverino, Pasquale d’Alife and Marie-Magdalene de Croy. The work was performed a third time, under the title Polifemo, Galatea ed Aci on 26 Juli 1713 in the Palazzo Reale on the name day of the Countess Anne von Daun, the four-year-old daughter of Count Wirich Phillipp Lorenz von Daun, the fourth Austrian viceroy of Naples. Handel himself returned to the same subject in 1718 (Acis and Galatea, masque, HWV 49a) and 1732 (Acis and Galatea, serenata, HWV 49b).
The autograph score is the sole complete, surviving manuscript and the primary source for the new volume of the Halle Handel Edition.
The autograph score explicitly mentions two violoncelli soli (no. 14), a contrabasso (violone grosso in no. 12) and harpsichord as the instruments constituting the basso continuo group. Whereas Galatea’s part only has a range of a twelfth, from a to e’’, it requires great vocal flexibility; the role of Polifemo has a range of D to a’ and, in some passages, the singer is required to sing leaps of two-and-a-half octaves. An exceptional singer must have been available in Naples.
Annette Landgraf
from [t]akte 2/2010