LA CALISTO (Cavalli) Strasbourg 2017 Elena Tsallagova, Vivica Genaux, Giovanni Battista Parodi
In this video
LA CALISTO by Francesco Cavalli
Opera national du Rhin, Strasbourg, France
2017
CAST
Elena Tsallagova, Calisto
Vivica Genaux, Eternity / Diane
Giovanni Battista Parodi, Jupiter
Nikolay Borchev, Mercury
Filippo Mineccia, Endymion
Raffaella Milanesi, Destiny / Juno
Guy de Mey, Lymphée
Vasily Khoroshev, the little Satyr
Lawrence Olsworth-Peter, Nature / Pan
Jaroslaw Kitala, Sylvain
Tatiana Zolotikova and Yasmina Favre, two Furies
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Conductor: Christophe Rousset
Orchestra: Les Talens Lyriques
Stage Director: Mariame Clement
Stage Designer: Julia Hansen
Costume Designer: Julia Hansen
Lighting Designer: Marion Hewlett
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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.
Synopsis
The story is based on the myth of Callisto from Ovid’s Metamorphoses:
In Greek mythology, Callisto (/kəˈlɪstoʊ/; Ancient Greek: Καλλιστώ, romanized: Kallistṓ, lit. ’most beautiful’ Ancient Greek pronunciation: [kallistɔ̌ː]) was a nymph, or the daughter of King Lycaon; the myth varies in such details. She was believed to be one of the followers of Artemis (Diana for the Romans) who attracted Zeus. Many versions of Callisto’s story survive. According to some writers, Zeus transformed himself into the figure of Artemis to pursue Callisto, and she slept with him believing Zeus to be Artemis.
She became pregnant and when this was eventually discovered, she was expelled from Artemis’s group, after which a furious Hera, the wife of Zeus, transformed her into a bear, although in some versions, Artemis is the one to give her an ursine form. Later, just as she was about to be killed by her son when he was hunting, she was set among the stars as Ursa Major (“the Great Bear”) by Zeus. She was the bear-mother of the Arcadians, through her son Arcas by Zeus.
Quoted from Wikipedia