L'Egisto (opera)

Based on a suggestion by Henry Prunières in 1913, it was long believed Cavalli's L'Egisto was performed under the auspices of Cardinal Mazarin in Paris in February 1646, but that work is now thought to have been the Roman opera L'Egisto, ovvero Chi soffre, speri by Virgilio Mazzocchi and Marco Marazzoli.

[5] Jane Glover, a specialist in 17th-century Venetian opera, gives the following description of Leppard's edition: Leppard has awarded himself a fairly broad editorial licence: that is, he treats the surviving material rather like a lump of modeller's clay, and moulds it skilfully into alluring shapes to please modern audiencees.

[4] The opera was performed by the early music group Le Poème Harmonique, conducted by Vincent Dumestre, at the Opéra-Comique in Paris beginning on 1 February 2012.

[6] A new edition prepared and directed by Marcio da Silva was performed by HGO at The Cockpit Theatre, London in June 2021.

Climene, a young woman on the island of Zakynthos, was captured roughly at the same time by the same pirates on the very day of her marriage to Lidio.

A year later, they have managed to escape and Egisto has escorted Climene back to Zakynthos, where the main action takes place.

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.