Salt Spring Baroque Opera Workshop
Handel’s Acis and Galatea
August 16-22, 2026

August 16-22, 2026

Fulford Hall

2591 Fulford-Ganges Rd, Salt Spring Island

The Salt Spring Baroque Music Society is pleased to present its first week-long baroque music workshop for singers and instrumentalists.

This workshop is for accomplished amateur musicians or professionals seeking to gain experience in baroque performance practice.  We will play at pitch A=415.  Instrumentalists should have experience playing a baroque instrument, and must have a baroque instrument pitched at A=415.  String players may use either baroque or modern instruments fitted with gut strings, and preferably play with a baroque bow.  Singers must be able to read music and have experience singing in choirs.  If you don't have an instrument, let us know as we may be able to source one for you.

At the end of the workshop, the participants will perform a complete concert version of Handel's opera Acis & Galatea.

The workshop will be led by the renowned Spanish violinist and conductor Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández, who is the concertmaster of the Bach Orchestra of the Netherlands and the director of the Handel Opera Academy.  He will be joined by vocal coach Anne Grimm, string coach Paul Luchkow, wind coach Romeo Ciuffa, and harpsichordist Simone Pierini.  Complete bios of all faculty can be found by clicking here.

THE MUSIC:

We will be preparing and performing the complete 1718 version of Handel's Acis and Galatea, a beloved, English-language opera featuring a tale of doomed love from Ovid's Metamorphoses.  It depicts the romance between the nymph Galatea and shepherd Acis, which the jealous giant Polyphemus destroys, blending themes of sensuality, humour, and pastoral tragedy.

Acis and Galatea is Handel's only dramatic work that has never left the repertoire.  During Handel's lifetime, it received more performances (about 70) than any of his other works.  Called variously a masque, an oratorio, and an "English pastoral opera" with music "after the Italian manner," its popularity in Handel's time and ever since is not difficult to understand:  it has the youthful lightness and freshness that we hear in his earlier Italian works, it is short enough that it can fit different kinds of programs — and it is in English.  It is in fact, his earliest dramatic work in English, coming just before a great run of Italian operas and long before his final shift into writing English oratorios.

Roles:
Galatea, nymph in love with Acis (soprano)
Acis, shepherd in love with Galatea (tenor)
Damon, a shepherd (tenor or soprano)
Polyphemus, cyclops in love with Galatea (bass)
Chorus of nymphs and shepherds

The score (Chrysander edition) can be downloaded by clicking the red button below:

Instrumental parts (Andrew Robinson edition) can be downloaded from IMSLP here: https://imslp.org/wiki/Acis_and_Galatea,_HWV_49_(Handel,_George_Frideric)

The vocal score (Barenreiter edition) can be downloaded by clicking the button below:

PARTICIPANT CONCERT:  

Participants are invited to prepare a chamber music piece to perform at the participant concert on Friday August 21st.  This can be something you have prepared with other participants in advance, or something you have put together during spare time during the workshop week.  Instructors will be available to participate if needed.  There will be rehearsal time and space in the breakout rooms on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, and during lunch hour, for you to rehearse for the participant concert.

NEED MORE INFORMATION? 

Write to us at info@saltspringbaroque.com and we will be happy to help.

We are looking forward to hosting you at the workshop!