Handel’s bittersweet opera gets an Irish makeover

"Handel never lets you down," says director Tom Creed

Edward Grint (Polyphemus), Susanna Fairbairn (Galatea) and Eamonn Mulhall (Acis) in Opera Theatre Company’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea

Anything about George Frideric Handel’s time in Dublin makes me curious. It probably has something to do with Messiah and the near-idolatrous veneration it has generated ever since in the city.

Handel was truly delighted with a trip that began with an unpleasant crossing from Holyhead. But the extent of the welcome in Dublin, and the lucrative prospects it presented after he had hit the financial buffers in London, spurred him to pen ...