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Cavalli La Calisto

(new edition by Peter Foster)

La Natura Stuart Haycock
Eternitil/Furia 1 Kristin Darragh
Il Destino/Furia 2 Miranda Makryniotis
Giove Callum Thorpe
Mercurio Gerard Collett
Calisto Hei Mi Lee
Diana/Giove-in-Diana Charlotte Stephenson
Linfea Caroline MacPhie
Endimione Eleanor Greenwood
II Satirino Roderick Morris
Pane Xing Wa Hao
Silvano Ross Mcinroy
Giunone Robyn Kirk

Royal Academy Opera and Academy Baroque Orchestra/Anthony Legge
Directed by John Ramster
Sir Jack Lyons Theatre, RAM, Friday 2nd May 2007

Premiered in Venice 1651 and not revived until 1970 at Glyndebourne, with lush orchestration by Raymond Leppard and a starrycast headed by Janet Baker (I was there - the composer's name was new to us then), Cavalli's comic Arcadian farrago made for a splendid student opera at RAM.

It was given in Peter Foster's thoroughly researched new edition based on a surviving score of the continuo part, with reduced instrumental forces brought up from the pit so that we could watch them play. It was a particular pleasure to have it all given on a chamber music scale, the singers having no need to strive to match the volume of a full orchestra, which can easily become overpowering in a small theatre.

The fun and confusions develop from Giove, King of the Gods, posing as the goddess Diana in order to seduce Calisto, petite Korean soprano Hei Mi Lee, who sang and acted the name part delightfully on our night at RAM opera.

Not everyone essayed the pure non-vibrato style pioneered by Emma Kirkby which by now has become the HIP standard, and some of the florid singing tested the performers, but the standard was generally high, with some excellent characterisations from a large cast of 'Gods, priapic satyrs, chaste nymphs, peacocks, dancing bears and an astronomer' directed with flair and a light touch by John Ramster, who also designed the effective and witty staging (economical too; ladders for mountains, etc) and was supported by an inventive team.

The two casts (ours, pictured, was the second) deserved more than one night each; the production should be revived.

Peter Grahame Woolf

 

Read about other versions of La Calisto:
from Munich (Ivor Bolton/David Alden/Sally Matthews)
and Brussels (Jacobs/Wernicke DVD)

PGW