Egisto is an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli

Francesco Cavalli

Francesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron Federico Cavalli, a Venetian nobleman.-Life:Cavalli was born at Crema, Lombardy...

. It was designated as a favola dramatica musicale. The Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 libretto was by Giovanni Faustini

Giovanni Faustini

Giovanni Faustini was an Italian librettist and opera impresario of the 17th century. He is best remembered for his collaborations with the composer Francesco Cavalli.Faustini was born in Venice...

, his second text for Cavalli.

Performance history

It was first performed in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 at the Teatro S Cassiano in 1643. Highly successful in its day, it was subsequently performed throughout Italy.

Rarely performed in modern times, the opera's US premiere was given by The Santa Fe Opera

Santa Fe Opera

The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...

 on 1 August 1974.

Synopsis

Egisto was a descendant of the sun-god Apollo. Over a year before the action begins he loved Clori, and she returned his love. While spending time together on the seashore on the island of Delos, they were captured by pirates and sold separately into captivity. Climene, a young woman on the island of Zacynthos, was captured roughly at the same time by the same pirates on the very day of her marriage to Lidio. She was sold to the same cruel master as Egisto. A year later, they have managed to escape and Egisto has escorted Climene back to her home island of Zacynthos, where the main action takes place. They both set to find their original lovers. What they do not know is that the pirates brought Clori to Zacynthos, where she fell in love with Lidio. Climene's brother, Ipparco, also fell in love with her.

The division into acts reflects the passage of the day from dawn through night to dawn again, as to keep with Egisto's heritage as a descendant of the Sun.

Time:

Place: The island of Zacynthos

Act 1

Set during the morning of the day after Egisto and Climene have landed on the island, the situation of the two mis-matched couples is established. Lidio and Clori are lovers while Egisto and Climene are friends.

Act 2

In the afternoon, Egisto and Climene are trying to get back to their former lovers, only to be rejected by them.

Act 3

When the night falls, we see the machinations of the gods behind the sufferings of the characters on earth. Lidio is captured by Ipparco, and Egisto goes mad. The story is however brought to a happy conclusion.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 1643 (Conductor: - )
Lidio	alto Alto Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
Egisto	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Ipparco	tenor
Apollo Apollo Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...	alto
Clori	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Climene	soprano
Dema	alto
Voluptia Voluptas In Roman mythology, Voluptas or Volupta is the beautiful daughter born from the union of Cupid and Psyche. She is often found in the company of the Charites, or Three Graces, and she is known as the goddess of "sensual pleasures" whose Latin name means "pleasure" or "bliss".Some Roman authors...	soprano
Belezza Hebe (mythology) In Greek mythology, Hēbē is the goddess of youth . She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hebe was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia, until she was married to Heracles ; her successor was the young Trojan prince Ganymede...	soprano
Amore Cupid In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...	soprano
Semele Semele Semele , in Greek mythology, daughter of the Boeotian hero Cadmus and Harmonia, was the mortal mother of Dionysus by Zeus in one of his many origin myths. In another version of his mythic origin, he is the son of Persephone...	soprano
Didone	contralto
Fedra Phaedra (mythology) In Greek mythology, Phaedra is the daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, wife of Theseus and the mother of Demophon of Athens and Acamas. Phaedra's name derives from the Greek word φαιδρός , which meant "bright"....	soprano
Hero Hera Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...	soprano
Cinea	tenor
L'Aurora Aurora (mythology) Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology and Latin poetry.Like Greek Eos and Rigvedic Ushas , Aurora continues the name of an earlier Indo-European dawn goddess, *Hausos....	soprano
La Notte Nyx In Greek mythology, Nyx was the primordial goddess of the night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation, and was the mother of personified gods such as Hypnos and Thánatos...	contralto
Venere Venus (mythology) Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...	soprano