From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Monday, October 8, 2001

Renaissance and Baroque delivers solidly

By Mark Kanny

Tribune-Review Music Writer

Happy is the audience that hears a worthy performance of "Acis and Galatea."

Pittsburgh's Renaissance and Baroque Society opened its season Saturday night with an impressive collaboration for the music of George Frederick Handel that drew fervent sustained applause from the capacity audience.

With crucial financial support from local foundations, Pittsburgh Camerata and an expanded Chatham Baroque under the direction of Rebecca Rollett performed one of Handel's biggest hits with charm and integrity at Synod Hall in Oakland.

"Acis and Galatea" was written in 1718, a year after Handel's popular "Water Music," but the vocal work defies easy classification. It derives from the English "Masque" tradition, a theatrical entertainment characterized by dancing and singing, but there is no place in the score appropriate for dancing.

Saturday night's performance was lightly acted at the front of the stage. The first part of "Acis" builds to the reunion of the lovers Acis and Galatea, who sing a duet "Happy We."

After intermission, the mood changes immediately with the powerful chorus "Wretched Lovers." And in Part II, the monster Polyphemus falls in love with Galatea. He is a Cyclops that kills Acis. All Galatea can do is to preserve her lover as a fountain.

Handel's endlessly charming music is mainly simple in texture, usually in only two or three voices. His unfailing invention hides to some degree the similarity of his material. Most of the music is in some multiple of a triplet rhythm, like a jig.

In addition, nearly all of the numbers in the more-than-two-hour piece are in "da capo" form. The term comes from a marking in the music to go back to the beginning after singing the first part and a contrasting section.

"Acis" shows the danger of the common practice of omitting the repeats. After an evening of building up audience expectation for da capos, Handel ends Galatea's final aria, "Heart, the seat of soft delight," with a passage in which some poignancy comes from expectation confounded.

Fortunately, Rollett led an absolutely complete performance.

Soprano Ellen Hargis, who sang Galatea, is a consummate artist. Her ear and diction are superb, and her high notes - gentle but clear as a bell - were a continuing delight.

Polyphemus is one of Handel's most memorable creations, and bass Curtis Streetman was a vivid character. He offered a thoroughly characterized performance, playing up Handel's comic exaggerations without going overboard.

Tenor Robert Frankenberry was effective in the minor role of Damon.

Chatham Baroque's lead violinist, Julie Andrijeski showed again that she is one of Pittsburgh's leading musical treasures. She is first-rate technically and adds vibrato effectively to her attractive tone. Guest oboist Geoffrey Burgess and recorder player Rotem Gilbert were brilliant additions to the ensemble.

The Renaissance and Baroque Society now faces the enviable problem of following up on its success. More Handel, opera or oratorio, certainly is called for. In time, the charms of opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Antonio Vivaldi will beckon, too.