Cavalli: Heroines of the Venetian Baroque

The opening of Venice's first opera house, the Teatro di San Cassiano, in 1637, was one of the major events in the history of opera. The protagonists of these new operas henceforth represented all the social categories; the gods were no longer the only ones to lay down the law, challenged by the Vices and Virtues who preached in the Prologues. With his 27 existing operas, Francesco Cavalli offers a fascinating version of this theatre of life. A single main thread runs through the excerpts drawn from each of them by Leonardo García Alarcón: the expression of human passions.