{"id":2726,"date":"2014-08-10T13:15:29","date_gmt":"2014-08-10T17:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=2726"},"modified":"2014-08-14T14:20:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-14T18:20:46","slug":"a-fountain-of-music-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2014\/08\/a-fountain-of-music-and-love\/","title":{"rendered":"A Fountain of Music and Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Morris directs and choreographs Handel’s<\/em> Acis and Galatea for Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Yulia<\/a>

Yulia Van Doren (Galatea) and Thomas Cooley (Acis) with Mark Morris dancers (L to R) Laurel Lynch, Michelle Yard, Maile Okamura, and Rita Donahue in Handel’s Acis and Galatea<\/em>. Photo: Richard Termine\/Lincoln Center<\/p><\/div>\n

It is beguiling to imagine George Frideric Handel\u2019s pastoral opera Acis and Galatea<\/em> receiving its first performance at the Duke of Chandos\u2019s mansion on the terrace overlooking the gardens and their newly installed fountain. If the part about the terrace were true, guests at this 1718 debut would have heard the sounds produced seven musicians in the Duke\u2019s employ and the five singers (who voiced their own roles and doubled as the chorus) floating on summer air.<\/p>\n

The view of the fountain would have added greatly to the atmosphere of John Gay\u2019s libretto too. In the tale, drawn from Ovid\u2019s Metamorphosis<\/em>, the burgeoning love between Acis and Galatea is threatened by the Cyclops Polyphemus\u2014a creature of huge size and huge appetites, who wants the nymph for himself. Spurned by her, he hurls a boulder at Acis. Galatea, reminded of her magic powers, transforms the lover she mourns into a stream that will flow forever. (Alexander Pope and John Hughes had a hand in the text, and some bits may have been borrowed from John Dryden\u2019s translation of Ovid.)<\/p>\n

The little opera\u2019s history itself flowed along a tributary with many bends and streamlets. Additions and subtractions (not all of them sanctioned by Handel) continued until 1739. In 1788, for a Viennese patron, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart re-orchestrated Acis and Galatea<\/em> for production in a theater\u2014<\/em>augmentingthe chorus and orchestra. Clarinets, which Mozart loved, replaced recorders and took over some prominent oboe parts.<\/p>\n

\"Galatea<\/a>

Galatea sings of her love to (L to R) Rita Donohue, Aaron Loux, Benjamin Freedman, and Jenn Weddel. Photo: Richard Termine\/Lincoln Center<\/p><\/div>\n

Handel respectfully revised by Mozart. . .what\u2019s not to love? And it\u2019s understandable that Mark Morris, that most musical of choreographers, would love Acis and Galatea<\/em> enough to take on the job of directing and choreographing it. The music is gorgeous\u2014limpid, rich in contrapuntal currents and fanciful ideas (such as the woodwinds imitating the birds that Galatea orders to cease warbling so she can think more clearly about her lover). The plot is simple, and the word \u201chappy\u201d is repeated many times under an apparently cloudless Act I sky. However, with the second-act entrance of Polyphemus, the verdant little world gets considerably darker. It\u2019s also in Act II that Morris makes more use of his bawdy humor.<\/p>\n

The production that was performed at Lincoln Center as part of the annual Mostly Mozart Festival is a lovely one. The three backdrops by Adrianne Lobel (based on her own paintings) present enigmatically abstract landscapes. These rise and fall behind and in front of one another\u2014forming transparent layers, and, aided by Michael Chybowski\u2019s fine lighting, they themselves change color.<\/p>\n

The first one, with its billowy white shapes, green splashes, and touches of red, influenced Isaac Mizrahi\u2019s costumes for the Mark Morris Dance Group members. Men and women alike wear long, full chiffon skirts, lightly mottled with those shades, as are the women\u2019s sleeveless tops. Polyphemus (baritone Douglas Williams) is costumed as a dandy in a suit that\u2019s similarly tinted (although he and the other singers are barefoot). Enigmatic in this context are the more neutral outfits worn by the remaining three; those for Acis (tenor Thomas Cooley) and his friend Damon (tenor Isaiah Bell) are kin to the leisure attire a guy might wear to a barbecue, and soprano Yulia Van Doren\u2019s emerald-green dress looks like an expertly cut cousin of those suitable-for-all-occasions items you could pack for a trip. The members of the Philharmonia Chorale are in the pit, along with the musicians of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Mark Morris Dance Group members in Acis and Galatea<\/em>. (L to R): Chelsea Lynn Acree, Billy Smith, Noah Vinson, and Maile Okamura. Photo: Ken Friedman<\/p><\/div>\n

The singers are excellent, and what Morris has achieved in the way of integrating them with the dancers is wonderfully revealing\u2014responding to the music\u2019s textures, the words, the drama, and Ovid\u2019s theme. I introduced with water metaphors a couple of paragraphs ago because I think Morris does this in Acis and Galatea. <\/em>Much of the imagery in his choreography seems to allude both to Handel\u2019s rippling, bubbling, musical pour and to the stream that Acis becomes. These nymphs and shepherds with their flowing garments make their first entrance gradually in squads of four\u2014running in and curving onto a diagonal, reaching toward a destination; turning to face upstage, both arms raised, and hastening there; then exiting and immediately returning. When the chorus bursts into song, the dancers add a turn, a hop and a soft leap to the pattern. Out of these coming-and-going currents, Morris builds a repeating, four-part contrapuntal picture that\u2019s both formal in structure and free as water on the dancers\u2019 bodies. And these dancers are marvels at capturing the music\u2019s lyricism yet remaining earthy.<\/p>\n

\"Handelian<\/a>

Handelian turbulence in Acis and Galatea<\/em>. Members of the Mark Morris Dance Group. Photo: Ken Friedman<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHarmless, merry, free and gay,\/ Dance and sport the hours away,\u201d sings the chorus. \u201cFor us the zephyr blows,\/For us distills the dew. . . .\u201d But in this bucolic nymphs-and-shepherds setting, the dancers are also the companions of Acis and Galatea and at times (very subtly, except in one comic moment) their sheep. That is, they tend to flock. Sometimes they accompany the love-besotted Acis and\/or Galatea solicitously, as if to leave them to their own devices might lead them to fall off a cliff; sometimes they just follow along. The lovers keep losing track of each other. During Acis\u2019s \u201cWhere shall I seek the charming fair?\u201d Michelle Yard and Aaron Loux shepherd them across the stage. Almost immediately, Galatea wanders through again, this time with three attendants; Acis follows suit. The next time she passes by, four dancers accompany her; he receives the same attention. No wonder Damon comes to advise Acis to tend to his flock and curb his passion for a while.<\/p>\n

Fifteen of the dancers form contrapuntal trios to depict over and over the forces that separate the lovers. Each threesome begins intertwined; then the middle person, arms spread, pushes between the other two. Briefly the three bend side to side together, before the central figure turns and pushes the other two apart. Reconnecting, they begin again. This happens in Act II, as I recall, right after the overture that begins like a gentle ramble, turns spirited and assertive, and then starts asking dark questions. Trios crossing the stage also mimic and anticipate Polyphemus\u2019s entry: two dancers lift one and move his\/her legs in giant strides through the musical air.<\/p>\n

\"Douglas<\/a>

Douglas Williams as Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea<\/em>, with (L to R) Lauren Grant, Dallas McMurray, Billy Smith, and Domingo Estrada Jr. Photo: Ken Friedman<\/p><\/div>\n

Baritone Williams\u2014long-limbed, mobile, and dapper\u2014sings the recitative that begins, \u201cI rage, I melt, I burn!\u201d with fierce gusto and starts ordering the dancers around. As they circle him docilely, he embarks on the lubricious \u201cO ruddier than the cherry,\/ O sweeter than the berry,\/ O nymph more bright\/ Than moonshine night,\/ Like kidlings blithe and merry!\u201d\u2014swatting this one, shoving that one, stroking a flank, and pinching a startled man\u2019s nipples; Lauren Grant faints dead away when he demonstrates his \u201ccapacious mouth.\u201d They form a couch for him and Maile Okamura places a helpful hand on his crotch. Damon attempts to give Polyphemus a lesson in gentleness, but although the villain copies his gestures, the advice isn\u2019t heeded. He loses his temper and launches Okamura as Ovid\u2019s boulder; she\u2019s passed from hand to hand in slow motion flight until she knocks Acis to the ground and lies inert beside him.<\/p>\n

But this is a story about love, and the dancers also illustrate that aspect of Handel\u2019s ravishing songs, such as the one that Acis sings in Act I (\u201cLove in her eyes sits playing,\/ And sheds delicious death;\/ Love on her lips is straying\/ And warbling in her breath!\u201d). In response, Loux and Chelsea Lynn Acree dance sweetly together, and other pairs join them. In a recurrent motif, couples cross the stage with a polonaise step, bending together, then apart, as they go. There are lovers among this flock; partners lift their sweethearts, and in their suspended turns and floating leaps, they catch each other and are caught.<\/p>\n

Morris, as always, makes sure the audience gets to know the dancers he loves. So when Acis is screwing up his courage to confront Polyphemus (\u201cLove sounds th\u2019alarm,\/ And fear is a flying!\/ When beauty\u2019s the prize,\/ What mortal fears dying?\u201d), Morris sends Laurel Lynch marching in with a brave display of dancing\u2014a flipped kick, the slow lift of a leg, the jut of a hip. . . .The same solo is repeated until eight men, one by one, or two by two, have performed the brief exhortation.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The happy ending of Acis and Galatea<\/em>. Amid Mark Morris’s dancers: Yulia Van Doren (foreground), Thomas Cooley (center rear), Isaiah Bell (rear left), and Douglas Williams (rear right). Photo: Richard Termine\/Lincoln Center<\/p><\/div>\n

Near the end, while Galatea mourns, all the backdrops are lifted and the rear wall of the stage momentarily glows dark orange. But the first pastoral painting drops down again, and by the time the chorus is singing, \u201cGalatea, dry thy tears,\/ Acis now a god appears!\u201d the dancers are forming couples, meeting and parting over and over, leaping and circling, lifting their partners. Her lover, crowned and robed, has become a river. Love flows on.<\/p>\n

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Mark Morris directs and choreographs Handel’s Acis and Galatea for Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. It is beguiling to imagine George Frideric Handel\u2019s pastoral opera Acis and Galatea receiving its first performance at the Duke of Chandos\u2019s mansion on the terrace overlooking the gardens and their newly installed fountain. If the part about the terrace […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893,417],"tags":[1259,1256,1258,1253,898,117,1252,118,1257,1255,1254],"class_list":{"0":"post-2726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music-and-dance","8":"category-opera","9":"tag-acis-and-galatea","10":"tag-douglas-williams","11":"tag-george-frideric-handel","12":"tag-isaac-mizrahi-michael-chybowski","13":"tag-isaiah-bell","14":"tag-mark-morris","15":"tag-mark-morris-dance-group","16":"tag-mostly-mozart-festival","17":"tag-nicholas-mcgegan","18":"tag-thomas-cooley","19":"tag-yulia-van-doren","20":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2747,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2726\/revisions\/2747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}