Purcell and Handel, the two masters of the English Baroque, are both enjoying anniversaries this year. That may be one reason why they ended up on an unusual double-bill at Covent Garden. In fact, the pairing of Purcell’s elegiac Dido and Aeneas and Handel’s exuberant Acis and Galatea works well.
The productions, by the Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer Wayne McGregor, are unified by a strong choreographic element but provide the requisite contrast by darkening further the mood of Dido and Aeneas.
One of many arresting images in the latter is that of the chorus clustered in a pool of light against an inky backdrop. Another is that of the witches (Eri Nakamura and Pumeza Matshikiza) joined at the shoulder, sharing a single pair of arms: a perfect visualisation of their intertwining polyphony.
If Lucas Meachem’s unfocused timbre compromises his Aeneas, Sarah Connolly is an inimitable Queen of Carthage, regal in tone and bearing. Lucy Crowe brings her sparkling soprano to Belinda. Christopher Hogwood rises to the challenge of this poignantly sombre production by drawing superbly expressive playing from the OAE and equally fine singing from the Royal Opera Extra Chorus.
The fusing of movement and music is less convincing to my mind in Acis and Galatea, though I defer to expert opinion on the subject. To vitiate with distracting scene-changing Handel’s ravishing scoring (treble recorders evoking the bubbling fountain) in Heart, the Seat of Soft Delight is by any reckoning unforgivable. In general, though, the darker moments presaging Acis’s murder are the more persuasive.
Neither principal shines. Danielle de Niese, in a bizarre shepherdess’s blond wig, lets her voice spread into a croon. Charles Workman as her lover dresses in sheepskin cloak and has a vocal roughness to match. The most stylish Handelian is Paul Agnew (Damon), followed by Matthew Rose (Polyphemus) and Ji-Min Park (Coridon).
The Royal Opera: Dido And Aeneas/Acis And Galatea
Royal Opera House
Floral Street, WC2E 9DD
