Video interviews with:
Conductor Rob Ainsley

Stage Director Ned Canty

Soprano Sharin Apostolou

“The studio production comes of age.”

When gods mix it up with mortals, the edge is sometimes very hard to find.

Jove’s head over heels for Calisto.  But she’s sworn to follow the goddess Diana and a life of virginity—a fact that doesn’t slow Jove down one little bit! Needless to say, Jove’s wife is none too pleased with the whole affair. But egads! Turning Calisto into a bear is just a bit harsh, wouldn’t you say?

Baroque opera continues its conquest of the 21st century with this heady brew of humor and sincerity.

Featuring some of the best young singers in the country- members of the Portland Opera Studio.  And now, for the very first time, in the beautiful intimacy of the Newmark Theatre.

Sung in Italian with projected English translations.

All performances are held at the Newmark Theatre located at 1111 SW Broadway (at Main Street)—the perfect setting for this special work.

Chamber operas offer riches to composers, performers and audiences alike.  Things not possible on the Keller Auditorium mainstage become magical in this intimate theater setting.

Performance time is approximately two hours and fifteen minutes, including one intermission.

Cast

Featuring an ensemble of 17th century instrument specialists assembled by Portland Baroque Orchestra.

The Plot

Prologue

Destiny persuades Nature and Eternity that Calisto deserves a place among the stars in heaven.

Act I —The world is suffering the consequences of a war between mankind and the gods. Jove (Jupiter) and Mercurio (Mercury) are making sure that everything is as it should be on earth. Jove observes Calisto, a nymph, lamenting the lack of drinking water, for which she blames Jove. Charmed by the girl's beauty, Jove immediately replenishes a spring and makes improper advances to Calisto. She, however, belongs to the retinue of Diana, a daughter of Jove, and has proclaimed that she will die a virgin. In great indignation, Calisto rejects Jove's advances. Mercurio advises Jove to take on the form of Diana, to whose charms the unsuspecting Calisto will surely succumb. The plan succeeds: Calisto has no objection to accepting affectionate kisses from her beloved goddess.

Endimione (Endymion) is also in love with the chaste Diana. When she appears in the company of Linfea (Lynfea) and her nymphs, he can no longer hide his feelings and thus immediately incurs Linfea's anger. Diana also treats Endimione rather coldly, in order not to betray the fact that she is secretly in love with him. Calisto joins Diana and the nymphs, ecstatic at the pleasure she has experienced with the kisses she and "Diana" have just exchanged, which understandably causes some confusion in Diana. She accuses Calisto of being a shameless hussy and banishes her from her entourage.

Linfea admits to herself that she would also really like to have a lover. A little satyr, Satirino, offers himself as a solution to her problem. Together with Silvano (Sylvano), the god of the woods, he subsequently tries to give new heart to Pane (Pan), the god of the shepherds, who is suffering from the throes of unrequited passion for Diana.

Act II — Endimione wants to be near Diana and sees her in the form of the moon. When he has fallen asleep, Diana can no longer withstand her feelings for him. She kisses Endimione, who immediately awakes and finds that reality is as attractive as his dream, he has achieved his heart's desire. Satirino, who has observed the scene without being noticed, now voices his own opinion on the constancy of women.

Jove's jealous consort Giunone (Juno) suspects that her husband's visit to earth is not only the result of his concern for the ravishes wrought by war and now decides in her turn to pay earth a visit. She immediately comes across Calisto, who in her despair innocently tells her how Diana was at first so loving and then so cold and cruel towards her for no apparent reason. Giunone knows her husband well enough to suspect immediately what has actually happened. Her suspicions are confirmed when Jove, in the form of Diana, comes into view with Mercurio and arranges another assignation with Calisto. Giunone angrily swears to be revenged on her rival, Calisto.

Before Jove, still in the form of Diana, can disappear for his rendezvous with Calisto, Endimione returns. Believing that it is Diana whom he has come upon, Endimione chats in lovesick fashion about the kisses he has exchanged with the goddess the previous night, thus revealing to Jove that Diana is perhaps not as chaste as he has been led to believe. Pane, Silvano and Satirino are also taken in by Jove's disguise: convinced that they have caught Diana with her lover, they take Endimione prisoner and threaten to kill him. Mercurio urges Jove to have nothing to do with the whole affair and to disappear. Endimione has no choice but to think that Diana has heartlessly abandoned him to his plight and loses all will to live. Linfea, on the other hand, is now determined to go to any lengths in her urgent search for a lover.

Act III — Calisto waits expectantly for "Diana" at the appointed time. In her place Giunone appears with furies and turns Calisto into a bear. In this form, she believes, her rival will no longer be quite so attractive in Jove's eyes. Jove, however, is determined to raise Calisto to divine status. He cannot, in fact, turn the clock back and restore Calisto to her original form, but he promises that when her life on earth as a bear comes to an end she will have a place among the stars in the firmament.

In the meantime the real Diana rescues Endimione from the hands of Pane and Silvano, who see this as a confirmation of their opinion of her as someone who appears chaste but who is in reality obviously sensual through and through. Diana decides that she will keep Endimione as her lover, in eternal sleep in the mountains.

In order to give Calisto some idea of her future glory, Jove shows her the firmament in all its magnificence, where her place in the constellation of Ursa Major is secure. But that time has not yet come; Jove and Calisto say farewell to each other. Calisto has to return to earth as a bear.

© Bavarian State Opera
 

Origins: La Calisto

“See how the cold crystals gush from the abundant spring! My lovely, languid one, immerse the coral lips of your sweet, enticing mouth in the escaping jet of water…”

Giove, king of the gods, to Calisto upon their first meeting

La Calisto is an opera of depth and beauty masquerading as a bedroom farce. That it is funny is undeniable; that the plot is frivolous is certainly arguable; that it is entertaining is obvious. Its depth however, is often overlooked by modern audiences, lost in the novelty of this recovered star of the opera firmament.

When Cavalli wrote La Calisto, he was an acknowledged master. His librettist, Giovanni Faustini (1615-1651), was a familiar collaborator. Faustini was also an experienced impresario in the first generation of that mercenary profession, and planned La Calisto for his Teatro S Apollinare.

In the new and exciting world of opera, Faustini rose preeminent as poet turned professional librettist. He was a cagey theatrical man who wore his scholarly robe of “poet” easily—he certainly was not averse to making a profit. His ten year partnership with Cavalli made him one of the most influential librettists of his generation—a worthy match for Cavalli, who impacted the history of opera much more than his genius mentor Monteverdi did. Part of this undoubtedly had to do with the fact that the vast majority of Cavalli’s operas were written for the popular opera house, and the Venetian audience had become voracious and demanding connoisseurs of opera. Their thirst for the new and original makes Cavalli’s successes all the more remarkable, because his works enjoyed frequent revivals,

Faustini usually liked to write his own plots, but for Calisto he chose to combine two Greco-Roman myths as told by Ovid in Metamorphosis. By combining the story of Calisto’s seduction by Jove and Diana’s love for Endymion, Faustini was able to create a series of intersecting love triangles, with myriad possibilities both for broad and bawdy sexual comedy and also for tender love scenes underscored by Cavalli’s deftly responsive score—music so sensitive to the poetry and situation that they meld seamlessly into one cohesive work. Beneath the surface of this cross-dressing comedy of disguises and infidelities, Faustini weaves such a tapestry of allusions that modern audiences which look “beyond the veil,” as it were, might be dazzled by the possibilities beneath.

Faustini blankets the denouements of both of the intersecting myths in his libretto with Christianity. In fact, this is very interesting taken with a suggested analysis of the character Endimione (Endymion) as a thinly disguised allusion to Galileo. Libertine Venice and papal Rome fostered an antipathy for each other, constantly complicated by Venice’s willingness to defy Rome. Renaissance intellectuals did not believe that the pursuit of knowledge and science were incompatible with Christianity and Faustini’s use of Christian values and language in the late speeches of both Calisto and Endimione underscores this. Calisto quotes the Virgin Mary when she discovers that her goddess lover is actually Giove in disguise, saying, “Behold me, your handmaiden. Command me as you will…” The ultimate decision of Endimione and Diana to share a passionate yet chaste love obliquely recalls the “Salve Regina.”

In casting this mythological tale as a uniquely Venetian one, we examine Endimione’s character. In the libretto, he is hardly an imposing figure. Written to be played by a castrato, now typically sung as a pants role by a mezzo soprano, his role as romantic lead confuses modern audiences. If Endimione hardly seems like a hero worthy of the music he sings, it might be helpful to know that in the 17th century, the castrato was considered “the most sensual and erotic of men”, attractive to both men and women. In addition, if Endimione is a representation of Galileo’s sufferings at the hands of the church for his scientific discoveries, his story is elevated to nobility. In Jennifer Williams Brown’s fascinating essay, she points out that Faustini spent as much time emphasising Endimione’s love of astronomy as his sex appeal and attraction to Diana. His adventures recall Galileo’s. Galileo too understood the moon; he too is imprisoned and threatened with death for his love and understanding of the science of the heavens (Diana) by the Church (the gods). One does not have to agree with this analysis for it to add dimension to a character elevated by Cavalli’s music if a bit pale and flaccid on the page.

A problem with staging 17th century operas is that their scores are so difficult to “realize.” They are written with only the melodies fully notated, some do not mention the intended orchestration, and the indications for the instrumentalists are written out as a figured bass line that the musicians were/are expected to flesh out. We are lucky that there are so many clues as to how La Calisto was originally conceived. We know from Cavalli’s manuscript that it was often changed for production expedience and that it had to be changed even within its rehearsal period. From the theater’s records we know that it was originally performed by ten singers, some of whom were double cast, and six instrumentalists, plus harpsichord, from which Cavalli played and conducted. Also from the theater’s records we know that it was a box office failure, and while many explanations have been offered, it seems the simplest is most likely. They opened a month prior to the regular season, and they didn’t have a famous castrato in the cast. Faustini himself had died during the rehearsals and this too put the cast and theater into disarray. The opera was withdrawn on December 31, 1651 and disappeared from the repertory until it was revived by Raymond Leppard in a 1970 production. La Calisto now enjoys a wide array of performances, from student productions at conservatories to early music ensembles to major opera houses. A brief perusal of the internet will yield several recordings and many performance notices. It is our very good fortune that scholarship has given us enough information to perform this gem and through their art gain insight into the compassion and humanity of Cavalli and Faustini.

About the Composer:  Rediscovering a Master: Cavalli, the Man and His Music (1602-1676)

Performing these works again is like a love affair, you either give and risk all, or better leave it alone.
          --Raymond Leppard, who pioneered the 20th century rediscovery of Cavalli’s music

In 1637 the Gran Teatro del Mondo in Venice made history and paved the way for the entrepreneurial birth of a new art form.  The theater doors were flung open and paying audiences witnessed, for the first time, the musical spectacular that is opera. Cavalli was born in Crema, Valentine’s Day, 1602 and first studied music with his father, the maestro di cappella of the Crema Cathedral.  He was a boy soprano whose lovely voice attracted the attention of a wealthy Venetian politician who, upon his return to Venice, took the boy with him and placed him with Claudio Monteverdi at St. Mark’s Cathedral. The extent of his talent soon became apparent.  Cavalli was a talented organist, and worked not only at St. Mark’s but at the church of Saints Giovanni and Paolo, where he played for 10 years.  In 1630, Cavalli married a wealthy widow, whose estate freed him to pursue opera in a more serious way, first as a producer and then as a composer When Monteverdi died, Cavalli continued his association with the church, but also began to expand his work in the world of opera.  In addition to composing, Cavalli acted as producer.  Cavalli also had a knack for spotting the gifts of others and surrounding himself with exceptional poets, whom he quickly utilized as librettists.  His operas began to gain popularity, his work slowly made its way across Italy with the newly formed touring companies.  Very soon Cavalli was a recognized master of the thrilling new theater of opera. This fame led to a commission in 1660 from the French prime minister, for an opera celebrating the wedding of Louis XIV and the Spanish Infanta, Maria Theresa.  After arriving in Paris, Cavalli found that the theater in which his opera was to be performed had barely broken ground.  Cavalli waited in Paris for two years for the theater’s completion.  During this time, he produced another of his operas, distorted by the addition of five “entrées de ballet” by the ballet master/court composer Lully.  Cavalli was forced to capitulate to the dance requirement, and his celebratory opera, Ercole amante, became a six-hour extravaganza, including several ballets by Lully, in which the King, his queen and his courtiers danced.   The entire experience seems to have left a bad taste in Cavalli’s mouth, and upon his return to Venice in 1662 he vowed never to work for the theater again, though he ended up setting three more librettos.  After thirty years of ascendance, it seemed that Cavalli’s star was waning.  Operatic fashion was changing and operas were moving in the direction that they would take in the Baroque period, a parade of recitative and aria that dominated until the Classical Period.  This transition was difficult for Cavalli, who allowed recitative and aria to bleed into each other, weaving a realistic tapestry of emotions not possible in the more stylized operas of the Baroque.  His operas went out of fashion and disappeared until their rediscovery and performance in 1967 and 1970 at Glyndebourne.   Cavalli wrote nearly 30 operas for Venetian opera houses, and his work most perfectly embodies all that we know about the opera of the 17th century.  Few scores survive prior to 1650, and Cavalli’s carefully catalogued and preserved autographs represent a treasure trove to musicologists as they illustrate a successful composer’s musical journey over 20 years.  Cavalli was also a savvy and gifted man of the theater who dominated the public opera world in its infancy.  His operas have a direct manner of communicating and are often very funny, after the fashion of the commedia dell’arte that so delighted Italian audiences   The last forty years or so have seen a “Cavalli Renaissance,” and the power of his music is slowly being rediscovered and appreciated by modern audiences the world over.

Listen to the Music