'Calisto' is a silly, beautiful opera
- Terrific cast%2C inventive staging and a wondrous set design made for an entertaining evening
- The orchestra was exquisite and Catacoustic Consort created a delicate palette
- %22La Calisto%22 repeats 7%3A30 p.m. Sunday%2C July 23 %26 25%3B 3 p.m. July 27
"La Calisto" takes the prize for one of the world's silliest opera plots – but it has some of most beautiful music you'll ever hear.
On Thursday, Cincinnati Opera presented its first-ever baroque opera in its alternate venue – the 760-seat venue Corbett Theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.
The light-hearted, rarely-heard opera of 1651 by Francesco Cavalli, is sensuous and even a bit risqué. This creative team took it up a notch, with complicated cross-dressing and a couple of bawdy moments that made the audience laugh out loud.
A terrific cast, inventive staging by Ted Huffman and a wondrous set design by David Centers made for an entertaining evening. The real joy, though, was in the music, beautifully sung by the cast, and buoyantly led by David Bates from the harpsichord. In the small pit, period instruments – baroque triple harp, theorbo, archlute, viola da gamba, cornetto and recorders – added an authentic note to the complement of musicians from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
If you didn't read the mythological plot ahead of time, you'd be hopelessly lost – even though Huffman and Bates made large cuts and Huffman provided modern surtitles. (The libretto, by Faustino, is based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses.")
Jove, chief of the gods (Daniel Okulitch) comes to earth, which is ravaged by war. He spies a lovely nymph, Calisto (Nathalie Paulin). Although she is committed to a life of chastity, he decides he must have her. At the suggestion of Mercury (Andrew Garland), Jove disguises himself as a busty version of the goddess Diana (Jennifer Johnson Cano). Diana is also a virgin, whom Calisto adores.
In fact, everyone seems to want Diana, including the shepherd Endymion (Michael Maniaci, a male soprano) and Pan, a lusty satyr (Aaron Blake). When Jove's wife, Juno (Alexandra Deshorties) discovers his philandering, she gathers her Furies and places a curse on Calisto, turning her into a bear.
The set design, also used in last year's production of "Galileo Galilei," included cascading wooden stairways, a large luminous globe and a tree trunk, on which Mercury and various half-goat satyrs could perch. Perhaps taking his cue from the dancelike music, Huffman's lively staging unfolded almost like choreography.
Paulin was charming as the innocent Calisto. She sang Cavalli's poignant laments with believable emotion and a pure-toned soprano.
As Jove, who spends most of his time in a skirt, Okulitch sang effortlessly and was richly communicative. His presence was commanding, whether he was strutting in his royal robe or playing "touchy-feely" with Calisto.
The myth is brought to earth by the conflicted, human desires of the characters. The chaste Diana, in fact, pines after the shepherd. As the goddess, Cano was memorable for the genuine feeling and lyrical beauty she displayed as she sang over the sleeping shepherd. Maniaci, as the star-gazing mortal, sang his lines with arresting tone and tender expression.
The singers phrased stylishly and added tasteful baroque ornaments. Deshorties was a regal Juno who showed her wrath in a searing revenge aria, vowing to teach her lecherous man a lesson. Garland was excellent as Mercury, singing with expression even while leaping about the stage. There were equally strong performances by Alisa Jordheim as a young satyr, and Nathan Stark, as Sylvano. Blake displayed a powerful Italianate tenor as Pan.
As for the bawdier comedy, there was the gender-bending – and clichéd – moment when tenor Thomas Michael Allen, playing a woman (a "curious old nymph" named Linfea), sang about the joys of men while peeling and eating a banana. The audience howled when a nymph's wig fell off (revealing a man) during an acrobatic battle of satyrs and virgins.
In this version, there was no chorus. But dancers (Zack Winokur, choreography) leapt on and off the stage as bands of satyrs and cross-dressing nymphs. Juno was surrounded by a skulking entourage of long-haired Furies. Reba Senske deserves credit for her wonderfully imaginative costumes.
The orchestra was exquisite and Bates was an alert leader, who almost danced along at the keyboard. Members of Catacoustic Consort, Cincinnati's early music ensemble founded by Annalisa Pappano, created a delicate palette.
The end was magical. Jove promised Calisto that she would someday join him in the heavens as a star, and a starry backdrop fell. But, condemned to roam temporarily as a bear, Calisto was left alone as the curtain fell.
"La Calisto" repeats 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 23 & 25; 3 p.m. July 27. Tickets: 513-241-2742, www.cincinnatiopera.org