George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
Acis and Galatea, HWV 49a (1718)
 
The performance is dedicated to the memory of soprano Patricia Burda Janečková († 2023), who played the role of the nymph Galatea in the premiere production of this musical piece in 2017.
 
Join us in celebrating the 25th birthday of the IMF Summer Festivities of Early Music with a visit to the theatre – a place of magic and wonders that will transport you to a world of fantasy! George Frideric Handel’s lovely pastoral opera presents an ideal picture of a life of love and peace, which even jealousy cannot destroy and in which death is not a sign of the end but of a new beginning. It is set in a dreamy landscape full of natural beauty… This first ever Handel opera to use an English text has remained almost continuously in the repertoire of opera houses until today.
 
This magical performance, with Baroque gestures and puppets of various sizes, is the result of many years of cooperation between the Collegium Marianum ensemble and the Buchty a loutky theatre troupe. The audience can look forward to a unique theatrical poetics, unmistakable humour and a distinctive emphasis on the artistic aspect. Five soloists and the festival’s ensemble in residence, directed by Jana Semerádová, will tell the sparklingly delightful, yet fatally dramatic story of the nymph Galatea, the shepherd Acis and the Cyclops Polyphemus.