Acis et Galatée was Lully’s last completed opera.  Like pretty much all of his work it displays in abundance the qualities that Voltaire claimed made Racine and Corneille superior to Shakespeare.  How you feel about that will probably affect how you feel about Acis et Galatée, which is an elegant and classically correct retelling of Ovid’s tale of a nymph who loves a shepherd and the Cyclops who spoils the fun.  It has an allegorical prologue too, which celebrates the glories of Louis XIV (natch).  It also has lots of dance numbers.

The version presented at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2022, in a production directed by Benjamin Lazar and Elizabeth Calleo, is aesthetically a bit all over the place.  The singers and dancers basically seem to be in modern street clothes (except for Polyphème, who is stylistically sui generis).  But when we meet immortals, and there is no shortage of nymphs, minor deities etc, they have diaphanous blue robes over their clothes and white “wings” glued to their heads.  But the sets are basically classical in conception and the acting and dancing style is, more or less, period appropriate.  The prologue does get a bit of a tongue in cheek treatment though.

The music making is period appropriate.  The singing is classically stylish and the orchestra uses period instruments.  Conductor Federico Maria Sardelli even has a staff for beating time though he uses it sparingly and manages not to inflict a fatal injury on himself (one can take historically informed performance too far!).  As far as singing goes the stars are, appropriately enough, soprano Elena Harsányi as Galatée and Jean-François Lombard in the haut-contre role of Acis.  Both are very stylish and personable.  Bass Luigi de Donato makes an impressively scary Polyphème.  The rest of the cast is fine and the dancers are really good.  Performance wise this is all very satisfactory.

Matteo Ricchetti directs for video.  It’s a straightforward production to film and there are no gimmicks.  The video and audio is fine too (DTS-HD-MA and hi-res stereo).  The booklet has a useful essay, a track listing and a synopsis.  Subtitle options are English, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Korean.

This is the only currently available video recording of Acis et Galatée and if you fancy the work there is no reason not to go for it.

Catalogue number: Dynamic Blu-ray DYN-57971