L’Egisto

We are excited to announce that The Yale Baroque Opera’s Spring 2026 Production will be L’Egisto. Performances will be on Friday, April 24, 2026 at 7pm, and Sunday, April 26 at 3:30pm at The University Theater.

Tickets are now on sale!

L’Egisto (Aegisthus) is a 1643 operain a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli It was designated as a favola dramatica musicale. The Egisto of this opera is not the Aegisthus of the Odyssey. This Egisto is a descendant of the sun-god Apollo, and for that reason is treated as an enemy by the goddess Venus. Over a year before the action begins he loved Clori and she returned his love. While spending time together on the seashore on the island of Delos, they were captured by pirates and sold separately into captivity. 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. She was sold to the same cruel master as Egisto. A year later, they have managed to escape and Egisto has escorted Climene back to Zakynthos, where the main action takes place. They both set out to find their original lovers. What they do not know is that the pirates brought Clori to Zakynthos, where she fell in love with Lidio. Climene’s brother, Ipparco, also fell in love with her.

The division into acts reflects the passage of the day from dawn through night to dawn again, to parallel Egisto’s heritage as a descendant of the Sun.

Time: Legendary

Place: The island of Zakynthos