Mark Morris’ “Acis and Galatea” Is Made For Loving

Mark Morris’ “Acis and Galatea” Is Made For Loving

The whole production is a whirl of light, sound, and wonderment. It is as accessible as a stroll in the park, yet exists on a heavenly plane. Director and choreographer Morris — who was present for the opening night Thursday, bowing gracefully with the cast to a standing ovation from the audience — established himself decades ago as one of the great choreographers of our time. His command of such a multidisciplinary work as this, with such a complicated history — an opera based on a poetic adaptation of a Greek myth, composed by Handel in 1718 as one act, revised extensively in 1732 and again in 1739, then given a new arrangement by Mozart a half-century later — shows Morris to be a master of all he surveys, an exceptional manipulator of bodies and souls. A bringer of the summer.