Cavalli: La Calisto

 Opera no 46

Cavalli: La Calisto

Soloists

Glimmerglass Opera

Jane Glover

I can't say that I got much pleasure out of this opera. Like the Monteverdi (opera 45) I have vague memories of seeing the Glyndeborne production on television but I don’t remember any of the music itself,

The music was not unpleasant in any way but I didn’t find much to latch onto. One of the problems was that I didn’t have a libretto so  couldn’t really follow what was going on other than at a very basic level, The other was that this was a recording of a live performance so at times gales of laughter almost drowned the music - there nothing unfunnier than a joke that you can’t understand.

This was an abridged edition of the opera edited by Jane Glover, who was one of the first female conductors to achieve any sort of fame in this country. She also wrote the leading book on Cavalli in English. To me the edition sounded idiomatic - not too plain but not over elaborate either. It is just unfortunate that I didn’t find the music very interesting.