Sébastien Daucé:"It is René Jacobs whom I have to thank for my discovery of the music of Francesco Cavalli. His version of La Calisto wore out my record player – I was totally gripped by the music’s élan, sensuality, and sheer genius. Part fable, part comedy, part tragedy, this Venetian jewel carries us off in a whirlwind of emotions and delights, under the spell of its sung melodies, each one more enchanting than the next.

After our début performances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2021, I suggested to Pierre Audi that they should stage this masterpiece. One thing led to another, and the project saw the light of day, not in the small ‘Jeu de Paume’ Theatre so like the Teatro Sant’Apollinare in Venice where the work was first performed in 1651, but in the open-air space of the Archdiocese, with 1400 seats and a long and narrow orchestral pit.

Though these constraints seemed quite challenging at first sight, they made me expand my research into how music was actually transmitted at this period. It was immensely valuable to me to see how Cavalli fought all his life for his music to be recognized and played beyond Venice, adapting himself on each new occasion to a new context, new constraints, new ways of operating, always producing the very best, without ever repudiating his style. Being able to spend time with the manuscript (partly in his own hand) of La Calisto at the Marciana Library in Venice taught me a great deal about his process of composition, and its continual transformation in the course of rehearsals and performances."