Cavalli: La Calisto (1993)

When they dusted off this archetype of Venetian opera in 1993, Rene Jacobs and Herbert Wernicke probably had no idea that their 'recreation' was destined for worldwide acclaim. But then, La Calisto (1651) still has plenty to say to today's audiences: first of all because it shows the gods as fallible, indeed lustful; and secondly, because it is served here by an absolute gem of a production, and by a musical realisation that manages to be both inventive and rigorous. Constantly mingling nobility and triviality, comedy and tragedy, this Calisto juxtaposes Monteverdian declamation and new-fangled aria as effortlessly as it juggles the divine and the earthly.