Jove went rogue. He had been trolling the glam nymph Calisto, one of goddess Diana’s followers, below. On earth. Enraptured by her pouting Instagram selfies. Failing miserably. Not even an encouraging emoji for his troubles. Her vow of chastity held out. No first-time Tinder-date pushover she.
So, top God faked a Diana Twitter account. Never mind rambling Donald Trump, even supreme beings pledge fealty at the court of King Elon Musk. Not that Jove would lower himself so far as an interview bromance with Elon.
He just screen-grabbed a shot of Diana partying and twitted away. So, when at Mercury’s suggestion he appeared to Calisto in Diana’s form proffering hanky panky, the nymphette was up for a discreet snog.
Let me put it this way. Naive Calisto got more than she bargained for. Was unsure what had happened. It is unclear from the libretto why a snog with Diana would have been OK. Enlightened times, the 17th century. Carnival in Venice, masqued debauchery, that sort of thing.
The audience at Glimmerglass Opera Festival is off to the baroque opera races, a roller coaster extravaganza, outpacing any of today’s social media scandals.
Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury split? Phooey!! Francesco Cavalli’s 1651 opera was stuffed with influencer antics that wowed the Venice carnival crowd. And had them screaming for more in upstate New York.
Nothing new on planet Earth. Welcome to 17th century Venetian”X”. Gen V had more going for it back then than Gen Z today.
Rob Ainsley, Calisto conductor and Glimmerglass Artistic Director, is a baroque fan. The opera fits squarely into the “Identity and Illusion” theme of this year’s Glimmerglass. Ainsley bubbles with musical enthusiasm, pointing out “the score of Calisto contains nearly 60 aria-like passages”, unlike Monteverdi’s seamless “recitar cantando” with speech-like declamations.
Cavalli had taken opera in Venice from court to people. In the late 17th century Venice alone boasted seventeen public theatres and the demand for new opera was insatiable.
Compared with today’s endless procession of dullard cruise tourists, every alleyway and canal were packed with vendors, musicians, clowns and entertainers. Class distinction was thrown to the four winds.
Cavalli pandered to this audience “on a high” by providing spectacle, laughter and tears, only loosely based on the carefully crafted ancient themes favoured by Monteverdi. Librettist, Giovanni Faustini shamelessly cut and pasted well-known story lines to add dramatic effect.
La Calisto is based on a story as old as time itself. The many forms of love; forbidden, sublime, platonic, unrequited, transgressing age and class. All served up with a dollop of jealousy topping and washed down with a revenge chaser.
Plot precis. Goaded by Mercury, Jove disguises himself as Diana, Goddess of Love, to seduce the nymph, Calisto. Ever obedient to her goddess, Calisto succumbs to Jove-as-Diana.
In a side plot – it’s just like East Enders – a shepherd, Endymion, is in love with Diana. She, secretly, reciprocates. Another nymph, Linfea, also with the hots for Endymion (lucky Endymion) wants to understand more about love. Purely from an academic perspective, you understand.
A young, well-endowed satyr, offers a practical tutorial to Linfea, who declines. After hearing of the Jove-as-Diana/Calisto encounter the real Diana understands her nymph has broken her vow of chastity and expels Calisto from the forest.
Pan, he of leg-of-goat and horn-of-ram, also fancies Diana and promises to bump off any rivals. Good luck, Endymion.
All hell breaks loose when Mrs Jove, Juno, descends to earth to find out what’s happening. Fortunately, it is not common for adulteresses to be turned into bears. Else, the streets of London would likely be unsafe to roam. But that’s poor Calisto’s fate when Juno finds Jove-as-Diana has been on the ran dan.
It is complicated enough but made mind-bending when satyrs and nymphs face off in a warlike dance after it’s discovered Diana has been canoodling Endymion.
I have it on impeccable authority that, in rehearsal, a satyr crisis occurred. It will go down in Glimmerglass history as “the codpiece war”.
Carlos Soto, Costume Designer, had originally designed enormous, comical codpieces. Nymphs objected strongly. Because of the implication that codpiece contents were on a similar scale. They had no item of clothing affording equivalent bragging rights.
The issue was resolved by a late-stage reduction in codpiece capacity. With no apparent consequential restrictive effects on the satyrs. They performed the complex choreographics demanded, including some occasional ineffectual rutting moves, with nary a wince amongst them.
Somewhat put out at being transmogrified into Bruin the bear, Calisto is consoled by the now-revealed Juno that she will one day ascend to the heavens. Her future is in the stars.
Other emotional conflicts are resolved on a “some accounts may differ” diplomatic basis. Readers who really need more detail, may find it here. If in doubt, read the libretto.
Mo Zhou, Director, delivered a riot of action that held the audience spellbound for two and a half hours. The costumes were so slickly designed by Carlos Soto, that until I checked the programme at the interval, I had not twigged that Diana and Jove-as-Diana were being performed by the same singer, American mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven.
No wonder Calisto was baffled. Emilie Kealani, the soprano who sang the role, was a participant in this year’s Glimmerglass Young Artists Programme. Promoted, literally, to stardom at a stroke, she is an exemplar for what Glimmerglass can offer its young artists. She grabbed her moment. More will surely follow.
Above all else, this opera was Ainsley’s musical self-indulgence. He loves the work and has carefully rearranged the score for the larger Glimmerglass orchestral forces. Period instruments were deployed. A wonderful harpsichord and a long-necked Theorbo.
Ainsley brought La Calisto to Portland Opera in 2009 and, at the preperformance talk accessible via the link, explained his mission to bring the buzz of 17th century Venice to Portland. Hardly surprising he has used an early opportunity as Artistic Director to bring it to Glimmerglass.
La Calisto, in the right hands, shatters the myth that Baroque opera must, of necessity, be inaccessible. The libretto paints love as an exquisite pleasure – with complex repercussions.
No different to the 21st century’s experience with social media. I think the mythological characters add more colour than the hysterical influencers who populate today’s chat rooms. Molly-Mae and Tommy Fury – sorry about the split and all that – but eat your influencers’ hearts out. I click on “like” for Calisto and Jove-as-Diana.
And, that other eternal lesson. If you are going to assume a Jove-as-Diana profile, don’t let your wife Juno access the details of your VenetianX account.
Write to us with your comments to be considered for publication at letters@reaction.life
