Reception Radio: Wretched Lovers (from Acis and Galatea), by GF Handel

Baroque Opera Reception at its Finest

Acis and Galatea is camp. There’s no other way to describe it. Today on Reception Radio, I’m giving you a little taste of that camp.

Handel’s 1718 opera predates the concept of camp by a few centuries, but its dramatic tone and wonderfully over-the-top musical stylings adapt beautifully to the term. Like many, many other pieces of music from the Baroque period (c.1600-1750), Acis and Galatea retells an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, specifically Book 13 if you like looking up source material. The titular characters are a handsome shepherd and a beautiful water-nymph who fall in love in an idyllic pastoral setting. As we’ve seen before on Reception Radio, pastoral settings are a staple both in Baroque opera and in Roman literature.

Reception Radio Double Feature: two songs from Dido and Aeneas, by Henry Purcell

If you only listen to the first act of Acis and Galatea, you might be convinced that it’s nothing but fluff. There’s pretty nymphs and shepherds everywhere, Galatea and Acis keep pining and yearning, and the plot is gossamer-thin. The second act more than makes up for this lack of plot. In fact, it’s positively crammed with plot. It wastes no time cutting to the dramatic chase, as you can hear in its big opening piece, Wretched Lovers.

Wretched Lovers signals the arrival of the opera’s antagonist, the Cyclops Polyphemus. He’s taken a liking to Galatea from afar, and- despite terrifying her and everyone in her social circle- has come to make a bid for her affection. Like many Baroque operas, Acis and Galatea features a chorus, all of whom participate in this piece. Their interlocking counterpoint melodies, haunting minor-key harmonies, and dramatically rising tension all give Polyphemus quite an entrance! Polyphemus doesn’t fare so well in Acis and Galatea’s story, and goes on to suffer pretty terribly in the Odyssey. Given his sorry fate, I’m glad Handel granted him this one moment of grandeur.

In the full Acis and Galatea opera, Wretched Lovers is immediately preceded by a love duet called Happy We. This abrupt tonal shift always gets a giggle out of me: I can’t help but wonder if Handel meant for it to be funny. He learns into comedy elsewhere in the opera (more on that in a future Reception Radio!), so it’s not impossible that he was aware of the silliness of this order of pieces.

Like the opera it comes from, Wretched Lovers is split in roughly two sections. The first is slow and mournful, with gradually building layers of voices. The second is more percussive, taking on a frantic, panicked feel as Polyphemus approaches. However, the distinction between these sections isn’t all that stark: throughout the second half of the piece, listen for the first melody and how it lingers through the Cyclops’ arrival. When paired with the other, faster choral parts and the whirlwind strings in the orchestra, it takes on an almost spectral quality.

Right before Polyphemus makes his entrance, the chorus erupts into a series of sharp vocal bursts. To me, they emulate the giant’s heavy footsteps, making the “mountain nod” and the “forest shake.” From here on, Acis and Galatea sheds its frothy pastoral tone and heads into more dramatic territory. In the context of the full opera, Wretched Lovers is a passage between moods and musical styles. On its own, it’s a magnificent piece of music, arguably some of Handel’s finest work. I’ve listened to Wretched Lovers way more than I’ve listened to the rest of the opera, and when I do put on the full album, I usually listen to this part more than once!

There’s always some emotional truth in camp, and Wretched Lovers is no exception. Even though lyrics like “Wretched lovers! Fate has past/This sad decree: no joy shall last” might seem melodramatic and silly to a modern audience, the way Handel set them to music is genuinely moving. It makes for a piece that’s touching and laugh-inducing all at once. It’s this interplay of emotions, both heightened and profane, that make Acis and Galatea such an enduring piece of music. It’s a highlight in the storied history of adapting the Metamorphoses, and rightly so.

Here are the lyrics to Wretched Lovers:

Wretched lovers! Fate has past

This sad decree: no joy shall last.

Wretched lovers, quit your dream!

Behold the monster Polypheme!

See what ample strides he takes!

The mountain nods, the forest shakes;

The waves run frighten’d to the shores:

Hark, how the thund’ring giant roars!