DESCRIPTION OF ERISMENA

Cavalli was a pupil of Monteverdi and the most popular operatic composer of his day, writing effortlessly accessible, tuneful works for a city in the grip of opera-mania - at the time he wrote Erismena, Venice had sixteen opera houses!

Erismena is a light-hearted, erotic comedy in which the course of true love runs anything but smoothly. It was a great favourite of English tourists to the Venetian carnival, to whom the themes of forbidden love and unbounded hope appealed, so it becaume the first Italian opera performed in this country. ETO uses a poetic 17th century English translation - discovered on the back of an order for ship's biscuits!

OPENING HOURS

7.30pm

PRICE

£14-£20