Craig Trompeter
Craig Trompeter has been a musical presence in Chicago for more than twenty years, performing in concert and over the airwaves with Second City Musick, Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, the Cal Players, the Newberry Consort, and the Oberlin Consort of Viols. As chamber musician, he has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Glimmerglass Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Valletta International Baroque Festival in Malta. He has performed as soloist at the Ravinia Festival, at the annual conference of the American Bach Society, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with Music of the Baroque. He is the Artistic Director of Haymarket Opera Company.
Q&A with Craig Trompeter
Q: What is your favorite part of Acis and Galatea?
Craig: May I have more than one? If an angry cyclops (Polyphemus) is holding a rock over my head to demand an answer then I choose Damon’s aria “Consider, fond shepherd.” From the moment the aria begins I love the downward gesture of the first phrase fragment and the way Handel sprinkles silences throughout the melody. He seems to be giving us time for reflection. If said angry cyclops looks the other way, though, I might whisper that Galatea’s “Must I my Acis still bemoan” is another favorite. That aria never fails to touch my heart. Galatea is so deeply sad that she doesn’t hear when the chorus tries to remind her that she has the power to transform Acis into a fountain. Sometimes we err by pushing away those who try to comfort us.
Q: What makes Acis and Galatea well suited for film? What are you most excited to see on film?
Craig: I am over the moon about our cast! The voices of Kimberly Jones, Michael St. Peter, and Kaitlin Foley touch my heart. Dave Govertsen is such a fine musician and singer -- it will be difficult to dislike him even though he’s the “bad guy.” Our chorus of soloists is “Grade A.” I can’t wait to hear them sing those glorious choruses! Handel wrote this piece for a small group of singers and instrumentalists. I think the intimacy will work beautifully on screen.
Q: Any notable facts to share from your research of this opera?
Craig: In 1718, after several successful years writing Italian operas for the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, Handel took a post as house composer to the Earl of Carnarvon (later Duke of Chandos) at Cannons a few miles out of London. Working together with the poets Alexander Pope, John Gay (later to pen “The Beggar’s Opera”), and John Hughes, he fashioned one of his most successful and enduring compositions, Acis and Galatea, for the small group of virtuosi on the Earl’s household. Handel must have loved this story of transformation. He set it several times throughout his long career.
Q: What does it mean to pay tribute to Haymarket’s first performance of the same myth, and to program Acis and Galatea to open our 10th-Anniversary Season?
Craig: Haymarket debuted with Handel’s little-known version of the Acis and Galatea myth, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo. I was obsessed with the sheer beauty of that work and felt that Chicago audiences should have the opportunity to hear it. The music and text of both versions are so evocative. HOC doesn’t often do “standard” repertory so it feels a little indulgent to sink our teeth into a piece that even “modern” musicians perform fairly frequently. Handel’s English version of Acis and Galatea is among his finest creations and I’m thrilled that Haymarket will perform it on period instruments with a cast of outstanding singers.
Filming the orchestra at Resolution Studios for Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Photo: Anna Cillan