Handel’s Acis and Galatea at St Carthage’s Cathedral, featuring the Irish Baroque Orchestra conducted by Oliver-John Ruthven.

Handel’s Acis and Galatea recounts the tragic love between the sea-nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis. Their happiness is destroyed by the jealousy of the Cyclops Polyphemus, who kills Acis by crushing him with a rock. In her grief, Galatea transforms him into a flowing river, so that their love endures beyond death – a myth of beauty, loss, and eternal devotion that inspired Handel’s enduring pastoral opera.

Tue 26 & Thur 28 May at 21:30.

Part of the 2026 Blackwater Valley Opera Festival – don’t miss: Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Lismore Castle, recitals at historic homes and venues, and concerts at Dromore Yard.