La Calisto is an Italian opera by Francesco Cavalli from a libretto by Giovanni Faustini based on the mythological story of Callisto.
The opera received its first performance on 28 November 1651 at the Teatro Sant 'Apollinare, Venice, where it drew limited audiences for its run of eleven performances. In the twentieth century it was successfully revived.
The libretto was published in 1651 by Giuliani and Batti. The story combines two myths: Jupiter's seduction of Calisto, and Diana's adventure with Endymion. The plot is somewhat formulaic: Jane Glover has commented on how the librettist had to invent complications to meet audience expectations in the context of Venetian opera. [1]
Faustini, who was an impresario as well as a librettist, rented the Sant 'Apollinare Theatre in 1650. He and Cavalli put on three operas there before his death in December 1651 during the run of La Calisto. The theatre was equipped with complex stage machinery intended to impress the opera audiences with spectacle. However, the eleven performances of La Calisto from 28 November to 31 December 1651 attracted only about 1,200 patrons to a theatre that housed 400. [2]
The original Venetian production suffered from many incidents, including the death of the primo uomo Bonifatio Ceretti shortly after the premiere. This forced major changes in the original cast: the role of Endimione was changed from alto to soprano and probably assigned to one of the Caresana brothers; this forced to find a new singer to perform Linfea, probably assigned to a young woman referred to as "putella" (i.e. young girl). [3] The two soprano Furie were replaced by a single bass Furia, most likely performed by Pallegrino Canner, and a new character was added, a drunken peasant called Bifolco, probably performed by a new singer, Lorenzo Ferri, whose part has not survived in the score. Most likely, the title role Calisto was sung by Catterina Giani, whose boat was paid for by the impresario during rehearsals and the opera run, while the other primma donna, Margarita da Costa, played the role of Diana. It is also quite likely that the roles of both Giove and Giove-in-Diana were performed by the same singer, Giulio Cesare Donati, who was able to perform both bass and soprano with a technique known as basso alla bastarda [4] (see Roles below).
The manuscript score is preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, with other operas by Cavalli. This has allowed La Calisto to be revived in modern times. The first person to publish the score was the British conductor Raymond Leppard in 1975. [5] Leppard had arranged the opera for performance at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1970. This production included a number of then-prominent singers including Janet Baker as Diana. It was significant for creating new audiences for baroque opera and the recorded version is still listened to (it has been released on compact disc). However, the way that Leppard had "realised" (as he termed his orchestrations) the opera was removed from the original work.
The United States premiere of the opera was presented in April 1972 for the dedication of the Patricia Corbett Pavilion at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music. The cast included Barbara Daniels as Diana and Tom Fox as Giove. [6] It was performed in London by the Opera Factory at the Royal Court Theatre in June 1984 with the harpsichordist, Paul Daniel, conducting a group of nine players of baroque instruments. [7]
The opera continues to be performed in new venues. For example, it received its premiere at Madrid's Teatro Real in 2019, while in the season 19-20 it was performed in Aachen [8] and Nürnberg. [9] It was performed with success at La Scala in 2021 in a production by David McVicar. The conductor was Christophe Rousset, who combined the players of his baroque music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques with members of the La Scala orchestra to fill the large hall. The singers included Chen Reiss as Calisto, Luca Tittoto as Jupiter, Véronique Gens as Juno, Olga Bezsmertna as Diana, Christophe Dumaux as Endymion, Chiara Amarù as Linfea and Markus Werba as Mercury. [10] [11]
Raymond Leppard´s edition of 1975 was the first publication of the score. It includes translations of the libretto.
In 2008, Jennifer Williams Brown's edition of the score (A-R Editions, 2007) won the American Musicological Society's Claude V. Palisca award (recognizing outstanding scholarly editions or translations). [12]
The German music publisher Bärenreiter Verlag initiated the publication of The Operas of Francesco Cavalli in 2012 with the publication of a new critical edition prepared by Álvaro Torrente and Nicola Badolato [13] that was used in the new productions of the opera in the Bayerische Staatsoper (2005), the Royal Opera House (2008), Theater Basel (2010) and Teatro Real (2019).
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, November 28, 1651 (Conductor: Francesco Cavalli) | Alternative Cast proposed by A. Torrente [14] |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Natura | alto castrato | Tomaso Bovi | Tomaso Bovi |
| L'Eternità | soprano | Margarita da Costa | Nina dal Pavon |
| Il Destino | boy soprano | Cristoforo Caresana | Margarita da Costa |
| Calisto | soprano | Margarita da Costa | Catterina Giani |
| Giove | bass | Giulio Cesare Donati | Giulio Cesare Donati |
| Giove in Diana | soprano or bass | Catterina Giani | Giulio Cesare Donati |
| Diana | soprano | Catterina Giani | Margarita da Costa |
| Endimione | alto castrato | Bonifatio Ceretti | Cristoforo Caresana |
| Giunone | soprano | Nina dal Pavon | Nina dal Pavon |
| Linfea | soprano castrato | Andrea Caresana | Putella (Antonia Bembo?) |
| Satirino | boy soprano | Cristoforo Caresana | Andrea Caresana |
| Mercurio | tenor | Tenor di Carrara [sic] | Tenor di Carrara (Francesco Guerra?) |
| Pane | alto castrato | Tomaso Bovi | Tomaso Bovi |
| Silvano | bass | Pellegrino Canner | Pellegrino Canner |
| Furia 1 | soprano castrato | Andrea Caresana | |
| Furia 2 | boy soprano | Cristoforo Caresana | |
| Furia | bass | Pellegrino Canner |
The story is based on the myth of Callisto from Ovid's Metamorphoses .
Francesco Cavalli was a Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverdi as the dominant and leading opera composer of the mid 17th-century. A central figure of Venetian musical life, Cavalli wrote more than forty operas, almost all of which premiered in the city's theaters. His best known works include Ormindo (1644), Giasone (1649) and La Calisto (1651).
Raymond John Leppard was a British-American conductor, harpsichordist, composer and editor. In the 1960s, he played a prime role in the rebirth of interest in Baroque music; in particular, he was one of the first major conductors to perform Baroque opera, reviving works by Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli. He conducted operas at major international opera houses and festivals, including the Glyndebourne Festival where he led the world premiere of Nicholas Maw's The Rising of the Moon, the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House. He composed film scores such as Lord of the Flies and Alfred the Great.
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian opera by Claudio Monteverdi. It was Monteverdi's last opera, with a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello, and was first performed at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1643 carnival season. One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times.
L'Ormindo is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli to an original Italian libretto by Giovanni Faustini. The manuscript score is held at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, while a copy of the original libretto has been digitized by the Library of Congress. The opera has set numbers with recitative, and is set in Anfa (Casablanca), in the Mauri kingdom of Fessa (Fez).
Giove in Argo is an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel. It is one of Handel's three pasticcio works made up of music and arias from his previous operas. The libretto was written by Antonio Maria Lucchini. The opera was first performed at the King's Theatre, Haymarket, London, on 1 May 1739.
Antonia Padoani Bembo was an Italian composer and singer.
Anna Renzi was an Italian soprano renowned for her acting ability as well as her voice, who has been described as the first diva in the history of opera.
Il Xerse is an Italian opera by Francesco Cavalli about Xerxes I. The libretto was written by Nicolò Minato and was later set by both Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel. Minato's plot outline is loosely based on Book 7 of Herodotus's Histories. The opera, consisting of a prologue and three acts, was first performed at Venice on 12 January 1655, at the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo. It was dedicated to the Ferrarese nobleman Marchese Cornelio Bentivoglio.
Oristeo is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The Italian libretto was by Giovanni Faustini.
Erismena is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. First performed in Venice in 1655, it was designated as a dramma per musica.
L'Egisto (Aegisthus) is a 1643 opera in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It was designated as a favola dramatica musicale. The Italian libretto was by Giovanni Faustini, his second text for Cavalli.
Eritrea is an opera in three acts by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli. The libretto is by Giovanni Faustini. It was premiered at the Teatro Sant 'Apollinare in Venice on 17 January 1652, and revived in modern times at the Wexford Festival in 1975 under the conductor Jane Glover.
Elena is a 1659 dramma per musica in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli. It is set to a libretto initiated by Giovanni Faustini and completed by Nicolò Minato, and it was first performed in Venice at the Teatro San Cassiano. Elena was revived in 1661 in Palermo but then not heard again until 2013, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Giovanni Faustini was an Italian librettist and opera impresario of the 17th century. He is best remembered for his collaborations with the composer Francesco Cavalli.
Artemisia is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli from a libretto written by Nicolò Minato. It was first performed at the Teatro San Giovanni e San Paolo, Venice on 10 January 1657 and revived in Naples in 1658, Palermo in 1659, Milan in 1663 and Genoa in 1665.
Rosinda, also known as La Rosinda, is an opera in three acts and a prologue by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini. It was first performed at the Teatro Sant 'Apollinare, Venice in 1651-02 during Carnival. It appears to have been better received than La Calisto, which was also premiered that year, and was revived in Naples and/or Florence in 1653 under the title Le magie amorose.
The Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo was a theatre and opera house in Venice located on the Calle della Testa, and takes its name from the nearby Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. Built by the Grimani family in 1638, in its heyday it was considered the most beautiful and comfortable theatre in the city. The theatre played an important role in the development of opera and saw the premieres of several works by Francesco Cavalli, as well as Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea.
Marco Faustini was an Italian theatrical impresario and brother of the impresario and librettist Giovanni Faustini.
Teatro Sant' Apollinare was an Italian public opera house established in 1651 in Venice in what is today Petriana Court. The Sant 'Apollinare was established in a residential building and equipped with advanced stage machinery intended to allow for spectacular stage shows. It was managed in 1651 by impessario and librettist Giovanni Faustini, who died during the first run of his opera La Calisto there. After his death, his brother Marco Faustini took over management of the theater. It was dismantled in 1661 and the rooms returned to residential use.
Barbara Daniels is an American operatic soprano.
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