Recording
Title: La Calisto
Performer: Maria Bayo, Marcello Lippi, et al.
Director: Rene Jacobs
Year: 1994
Length: 2 hours 45 minutes
Review
This was a great opera, funnier than anything by Monteverdi (who lacks in the funnies) and musically catchier as well. There is a very obvious distinction between the two composers, Cavalli was composing for the people of Venice, not for the nobility.
The opera is amazing, but really need to be seen to get its full impact, thankfully there is a DVD of exactly the same performers and production which is really worth getting. So do!
You will laugh, you will cry... well maybe not cry but the portrayal of the gods is just so amusing, they are completely human, and not the most dignified kind of human as well, the libretto is just amazing. And then the music is also astounding, props to my man Marcello Lippi who sings a lot of the opera in falsetto as Jupiter gets transformed into Diana, Bayo is also great as Calisto. Unmissable.
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The opera received its first performance on 28 November 1651 at the Teatro San Apollinare, Venice. At the time, the San Apollinare was equipped with complex stage machinery, which the theatre intended to use in the premiere production of La Calisto to impress audiences with stage spectacle. However, the first performances had small audiences, as the run of 11 performances from 28 November to 31 December 1651 attracted only about 1200 patrons to a theatre that housed 400. In addition, Faustini died during the first run, on 19 December.
Juno sends the furies to punish Calisto:
No comments:
Post a Comment