Friars just wanna have fun: Cesti’s Orontea with La Nuova Musica
The penniless artist Alidoro, who is raised to wealth and power by Queen Orontea’s passion, albeit with a few hiccups along the way, is thought to be a humourous self-parody of Cesti, whose friar’s vows of poverty, chastity and obedience didn’t seem to hold him back from much in life. La Nuova Musica threw themselves into…