La Calisto 2020 Reviews

Opera Magazine
Yehuda Shapiro
January 30th 2020

On an evening when Francesco Manelli’s Il ratto d’Europa might have been appropriate fare, another of Jupiter’s dalliances provided escapism and even enchantment. Marcio da Silva’s production of La Calisto was in Ensemble OrQuesta’s signature style - starkly graceful, at times almost ritualistic, but always sensitive to the mood of the moment. Each of the ten singers was intensely focused and offered a distinct vocal personality, while Kieran Staub’s musical direction from the harpsichord maintained a constant tension and lift, exhilaratingly so in the dance rhythms.

In the Cockpit Theatre’s black box, Christian Hey’s symmetrical tiered setting was framed by taut, evenly spaced diagonal cords. At its centre was a chair that served as a throne. Except for the rustic, centaur-like satyrs, the cast was dressed by Alice McNicholas in subtly adapted modern dress.

There were laughs when John Holland-Avery’s blokeish Giove, forthrightly and firmly sung, disguised himself as Diana, but the joke was not overplayed, and there were chills when Rosemary Carlton-Willis as Giunone, strikingly incisive in her utterance, vented her wrath on Calisto—Helen May, willowy and anxious, but also ringing of voice. As Diana, Isabelle Haile made percussive yet alluring descents into her chest register, and Victoria Mulley dignified Linfea—here no mere figure of fun—with her vocal substance and passion. Eric Schlossberg brought lyrical pathos to Endimione, Kieran White’s timbre as Pane poetically evoked an oboe, and Kathleen Nic Dhiarmada sparkled captivatingly as Satirino. Timothy Patrick was warmly solicitous as Silvano and, on singing duty as Mercurio, da Silva proved a powerful special adviser to the king of the gods’.
Review in Opera Magazine, April 2020 issue.

★★★★ 
Plays to See
Owen Davies
5th February 2020

La Calisto is a bit of baroque soap opera – but with nymphs and satyrs rather than barmaids and hooligans. Francesco Cavalli wrote it for the Venice Carnival of 1651 and it couldn’t offer a better illustration of the differences at that time between the artistic freedoms of the mercantile republic of Venice and the puritan regime of Cromwell’s Commonwealth in England. The opera examines – with a less than entirely serious attitude – different forms of love and desire through the lens of the mythological story of Jove and Calisto. And the music is from the period when the aria began to take its place alongside sung dialogue (recitative) in the conventional form of opera.

Calisto is a follower of the chaste huntress Diana. The god Jove lusts after Calisto and, improbably disguised as Diana, rapes her. The satyr god Pan lusts after Diana, who in turn is smitten with the beautiful shepherd boy Endymion. After encounters in which Diana rejects the love of the confused Calisto and of the ardent Endymion and of the lustful Pan, Jove’s jealous wife, Juno appears to take vengeance on Calisto (why not on Jove, one wonders). She turns her into a bear but, at the end, Jove re-appears and places Calisto amongst the stars.

Ensemble OrQuesta is developing a formidable reputation for producing gripping and authentic versions of baroque masterpieces. This production at the Cockpit Theatre is a very entertaining version of La Calisto with many strengths and only one or two minor weaknesses. The orchestra of five players, including the splendid music director Kieran Staub at the harpsichord, is quite remarkable, producing a fine baroque sound. Most of the singers seem very much at home with, and on top of, the complex demands of Cavalli’s music. As Calisto, Helen May excels. Despite the comic chaos that sometimes surrounds her, she keeps the tragic heart of the opera beating with admirable passion. And as Diana, Isabelle Haile is equally persuasive – difficult for the chaste goddess’ passion for Endymion to seem real but Haile managed this with style and with rich soprano colours in the voice. As Endymion, Eric Schlossberg offered an uncomplicated picture of the unfortunate peasant in love with a goddess and his flimsy but sweet counter-tenor voice gave a poignant flavour to the role. Also worth a particular mention is Victoria Mulley who put life and soul into the comic character, Linfea, Diana’s companion. She has a powerful voice and projects the character with force and humour.

The production has charm and director Da Silva uses every inch of the theatre-in-the-round space of The Cockpit but it shows the effect of the hand-to-mouth existence of companies like OrQuesta – just a fraction of the money lavished on the Royal Opera would give companies like this a deserved boost. The decorated boiler suits that some of the singers wear are less than ideal and the “mummers’ hobby horse” costumes for the satyrs don’t work. The bear transformation is sadly, but perhaps wisely, avoided. Best are the lighting effects that framed key moments of the action and point the way to what might have been handled better with more simplicity of design.

But these reservations are trifling when judged against the pleasure of a rare baroque opera being offered in such an accessible way to an audience that clearly relished the chance to enjoy such a gem. Even the contents of the programme notes regularly provided by Ensemble OrQuesta are of the highest standard. No praise is too high for a company that has such high ambitions and comes so close to realising them.

Early Music Reviews
Andrew Benson-Wilson
5th February 2020

I arranged to see Cavalli’s La Calisto on the evening of the UK’s Brexit, sandwiching it between two pro-EU vigils in central London. I thought it would take my mind off the goings-on in Parliament Square, but soon had second thoughts. It opens with a Prologue where Nature, Eternity and Destiny meet to decide whether any humans are worthy of elevation to everlasting fame and divinity – a glory for which some humans actively promote themselves. The opera proper starts after the earth has been mistakenly destroyed by poor decision making by the powers that be. Giove arrives with his side-kick Mercurio to take back control and “restore calm to earth”. He finds the nymph Calisto in a deep depression at the sad state of things, and promptly tries to seduce her. It is soon apparent that Giove is a serial philanderer, adulterer and a serial liar of monumental proportions. So much for taking my mind off current political things.

The world of opera is a curious one. Normally seen as the preserve of the wealthy, it’s image can understandably put a lot of people off. It can be extraordinarily expensive to produce – and usually to see. But in recent years there have been a number of opera companies producing small-scale opera at more realistic production costs and ticket prices in less traditional venues. One such is Ensemble OrQuesta who produced and performed this La Calista at The Cockpit Theatre. With tickets at £17 (£12 concessions), this was opera available to all and with a commendably high musical standard to boot.

The Cockpit Theatre is a small square black-box affair, for this production with seating on three sides of a central area. The fourth side was used as an extension to the central stage, with a large chair at its centre, a screen that looked like harp strings, and projected surtitles above. The small group of musicians filled one of the stage entries, with the other three used throughout the performance. The tiny ‘orchestra’ consisted of two violins and a busy continuo group of harpsichord, cello and archlute with the occasional addition of a baroque guitar and an (electronic) organ.

Although many performances of La Calisto use much larger instrumental forces in the continuo group, these small forces were entirely appropriate and sounded well in the space. Harpsichordist Kieran Staub had a key role as musical director. He was positioned with his back to the singers but I didn’t notice any lack of coordination between him and the singers, who could easily see the theorbo player and cellist.

Stage direction was by Marcio da Silva (who also sang the role of Mercurio and joined the orchestra for occasional contributions) and Madeline Claire de Berrie. Given the circumstances of the space and budget, their staging was very impressive. The only props were a chair, a few boxes, a birdcage and some twigs, used variously to represent flowing water as well as forming part of the costumes for several of the singers.

Vocally, all 11 singers impressed, as they did in their acting ability. A number of singers are still students. It would be invidious to pick out specific singers in what was clearly a collaborative enterprise, but Helen May as Calisto and Kathleen Nic Dhiarmada as Satirino and the Prologue’s L’Eternita deserve special mention for their singing and acting ability. The full cast list is given below.

La Calisto was first performed during the carnival season in 1651 in Venice’s Teatro Sant ‘Apollinare. Faustini’s libretto combines the two myths of the seduction of the nymph Calisto by Jupiter/Giove and Diana’s dalliance with the shepherd Endimione. The plotline is not the most imaginative in opera history, but Faustino’s libretto introduces a number of side stories. It mixes serious takes on several human conditions but is enlivened by several lighter moments, all dealt with well in this production. The scene where Calisto is turned into a bear by the ever-jealous Giunone (Juno) was downplayed, as was the eventual transformation of Calisto into the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear) doomed to never set below the horizon. I saw a production in Austria in an open courtyard when, just at that key moment, the clouds parted above to reveal Ursa Major itself – or should it be herself.

So full marks to a young and enterprising opera company bring top class music to a classless audience.