American Bach Discovery Series: Handel Opera

Polyphemus catching Acis and Galatea “in the act” (sculpture by Auguste Ottin for the Medici Fountain in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, courtesy of American Bach)

The second of the three Discovery Series concerts to be presented by American Bach will take place in a little less than a month’s time. The program will be devoted entirely to a concert performance of Handel’s HWV 49 opera Acis and Galatea. The title character Acis is a young shepherd from Sicily. He falls in love with the sea-nymph Galatea. However, the son of Poseidon (God of the sea) is the one-eyed giant Polyphemus. His desire for Galatea is so strong that he crushes Acis with a boulder. However, Galatea maintains her love for Acis by transforming him into a bubbling fountain. (In the immortal words of Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up, you know!”)

The title role of Galatea will be sung by Hélène Brunet, whose last appearance with American Bach was in the summer of 2023, when she was the soprano soloist in the annual performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s BWV 232 Mass in B minor. Tenor James Reese will take the role of Acis. He also had a “Mass experience” in San Francisco in 2023; but this was when he contributed to the performance of Georg Muffat’s “Missa in labore requies” (which required eight soloists) for a Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale concert. Another American Bach “veteran” will be bass-baritone Mischa Bouvier as Polyphemus. This will be a major change from his American Bach appearance last year in March, when he sang the “Christus” texts for Bach’s BWV 245 St John Passion. The final visiting soloist will be tenor Michael Jankosky, who will sing the role of the shepherd Silvio. His last appearance as a guest soloist was with the San Francisco Choral Society during their Summer Festival Chorus performance at Davies Symphony Hall in August of 2023.

This performance will take place in St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at 1111 O’Farrell Street, on the southwest corner of Franklin Street, beginning at 4 p.m. on Sunday, February 23. Tickets are priced between $44 and $111. Tickets may be purchased online through a Tix Web page. This site includes a diagram which shows where tickets are available (which is currently the case for all four price areas).