Last night was the first performance of this year’s production by the Glenn Gould Opera School at the Royal Conservatory.; the piece being Cavalli’s 1651 work La Calisto.  It’s one of those mythologically based pieces with a rather convoluted plot.  It starts with a prologue where various allegorical figures explain why Calisto, a nymph, should be immortalised as a constellation and then we flashback to the main action.  Jove (natch) fancies Calisto who is a chaste (and chased) devotee of the virgin huntress Diana.  With the help of Mercury Jove disguises himself as Diana and seduces Calisto.  This makes Diana and Juno (inevitably) very unhappy and Calisto is turned into a bear by the Furies though Jove reassures her that she will end up as a star.  Meanwhile there’s also sorts of stuff going on with Diana and a shepherd, Pan, assorted nymphs and a satyr.  Various permutations of women playing men pretending to be women etc allow for all sorts of broad sexual humour plus goat on goat action.  So it’s an odd blend of serious classical myth and pastoral farce that  works better when it doesn’t try to be too intellectual.

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