Director Elsie Edgerton-Till sets the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s production of La Calisto at the aftermath of a wedding, but it could have easily be a frat house. The mythological characters of Francesco Cavalli’s 1651 opera – the story from Ovid’s Metamophoses of a nymph-turned-bear-turned-constellation – revel in sexually charged antics that Edgerton-Till exploits to comic (and sometimes disturbing) effect.

Giovanni Faustini’s libretto sees Giove (Jupiter), the king of the gods, return to Earth to heal the planet after a devastating war. In Edgerton-Till’s production the destruction manifests in discarded bottles, glasses and streamers – post-wedding party detritus that litters Isabella Andronos’ open set, backed by a deep blue, star studded sky.

La Calisto, Sydney Conservatorium of MusicAshlee Woodgate, Allen Qi and Jerumy Dubé in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s La Calisto. Photos © Patrick Boland

Allen Qi brings a towering arrogance and a dark, treacle-like baritone to Jupiter. Though he lost some of the power dipping into the low register, his performance overall is commanding. He’s joined at the party by his wingman Mercurio (Mercury), sung with light athleticism and spotless diction by baritone Jeremy Dubé. The pair come across the nymph Calisto wandering alone and thirsty, seeking respite in discarded champagne bottles.

Ashlee Woodgate is a bright-eyed Calisto, bringing a warm, smooth-toned soprano to the role, confidently rejecting Giove’s advances with a drunken, twerking dance as she declares herself a virgin in service of Diana, Giove’s daughter and goddess of the hunt.

When Giove’s straight-to-the-point attempt at seduction fails, Mercurio proposes a more sinister solution, convincing Giove to disguise himself as Diana (which he does, down to the red painted toe nails) to seduce the nymph.

La Calisto, Sydney Conservatorium of MusicAshlee Woodgate and Allen Qi

Despite his baritone voice, Giove’s disguise is immediately and powerfully successful (he winks and makes an obscene gesture to the audience as Calisto lays her head in his lap) and what follows is a string of farcical scenes, full of mistaken identity, pursuits and seductions – not dissimilar to the those of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – that sees Calisto cast out of Diana’s followers, turned into a bear by Giove’s furious wife Juno (Aimee O’Neill) before finally finding peace in her transformation into the constellation Ursa Major.

La Calisto, Sydney Conservatorium of MusicJia Yao Sun as Diana

Jia Yao Sun is imperious as the real Diana, her mezzo soprano voice rich and dark. Baffled by Calisto’s apparent memories of a tryst with her, she also secretly harbours a love for Endymion, a young man of humble origins a pants role played by mezzo Rebecca Hart, whose emotion-charged voice and fine acting is a highlight in this production. Countertenor Robert Adam is Linfea, a nymph toying with the idea of casting off her virginal life and taking a lover – as long as it’s not Satirino, another young nymph, sung with great humour by soprano Sitong Liu, who pursues her.

Tenor Joshua Oxley does a fine job as Pan – who is also in love with Diana – with plenty of depth in his voice, and forming a bright, comradely trio with his wingman Silvanus (bass Vincent Farrell) and Liu.

La Calisto, Sydney Conservatorium of MusicSitong Liu, Joshua Oxley, Rebecca Hart and Vincent Farrell

Aimee O’Neill brings her penetrating soprano to bear as Juno, bringing plenty of outrage to the role, particularly in her third act aria (which seems to espouse the moral message that all women should, like her, turn the mistresses of their unfaithful husbands into bears). Though her strident sound gives plenty of character to the role, perhaps tempering the rage might allow for a smoother delivery and cleaner intonation. In addition to Juno, O’Neill is Nature who, alongside Esther Song as Eternity and Victoria Hodgkinson as Destiny (both of whom return as Furies), opens the first act’s Prologue.

Edgerton-Till’s wedding setting allows for crisp gender delineations in Andronos’ costumes – suits and dresses – which are useful when there are gender-swapping disguises and plenty of pants roles, and the set is stark enough to give the singers plenty of breathing room, allowing the focus to fall on the music and acting.

But while there is plenty of humour in this production, some scenes don’t work quite as well as others. A foiled gang-rape that becomes a (consensual) orgy feels unnecessary, and with so many gender, sexual, class and power dynamics in the mix, it feels like there were missed opportunities to explore some larger ideas in a more meaningful way. For instance, it doesn’t ring true that after being deceived into a sexual relationship with Giove, Calisto is grateful for his turning her into a constellation (though Woodgate and Qi’s third-act duet is very pretty and well sung).

Edgerton-Till finds a delightfully comic way to cover the stage reset and orchestra’s tuning up between the first two acts, though unfortunately noise from backstage also filtered through to the audience in some of the quieter moments on Tuesday night, which took some of the polish off an otherwise good production.

The Early Music Ensemble is led by the Conservatorium’s professor of historical music Neal Peres da Costa, who gives the music a lively reading of Cavalli’s ornate score that keeps the narrative pace moving, crunching organ dissonances adding to the drama. Intonation is often tricky with period instruments and gut strings, but while there were some issues in the upper strings the performance was of a generally very high quality. And the Con’s Dean Anna Reid showed herself unafraid to get her hands dirty and pitch in on Viola da Gamba in the pit.

La Calisto is incredibly entertaining and there is some great singing on display from the Con students. This is a fun production of a strange opera with some wonderful music – but perhaps leave the children at home.


La Calisto is at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music until May 27

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