Last night we watched a video of a collaboration between the Royal Opera House amd the Royal Ballet, Händel's wonderful Acis and Galatea, about a water nymph who loves a shepherd. When Galatea rejects the amorous advances of the Cyclops Polyphemus - later blinded by Ulysses in The Odyssey - the monster kills Acis, and a mourning Galatea turns him into a running stream.
Years ago, the City Opera had a wonderfully humorous and moving production of the work, but this Royal Opera-Ballet collaboration is a dud, staged by a choreographer whose choreography completely underwhelmed me. Each of the five singing roles, like the cast of Follies, had a dancing counterpart who writhed, twisted, pranced and did nothing to help the plot. They did a fantastic job, however, of taking attention from the singers.
