Composed in 1718 for private performance in the gardens of the Duke of Chandos’s palace, and based on an episode in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Handel’s tragicomic serenata is a miniature masterpiece of love, loss and transformation. Birdsong and murmuring waters weave through the music as the sea nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis celebrate their mutual love, enraging the lustful cyclops, Polyphemus. When Polyphemus attacks Acis, the shepherd is transformed into a natural spring, forever at one with the idyllic landscape and the tears of his beloved nymph.

Louise Bakker directs Opera Holland Park’s first production of a Handel opera. Former Opera Holland Park Young Artist and alumnus of the Royal Opera’s Jette Parker scheme Michael Papadopoulos conducts, with Anthony Gregory and Elizabeth Karani as the lovers, Acis and Galatea. South African bass-baritone Chuma Sijeqa takes the role of Polyphemus, the cyclops driven mad by unrequited passion.