La Calisto premiered at the Teatro San Apollinaire of Venice in 1652. The libretto was written by Giovanni Faustini, an author who collaborated with Cavalli many times. He set a tale from Ovid's Metamorphoses, drawing on the style of the popular mythological burlesque in vogue in Italy during the middle of the seventeenth century. The drama juxtaposes human frailty with the unfeeling indifference of the Roman deities. Faustini included in his libretto several comic characters who ridicule the hubris and arrogance of the gods, while the joys and pains of being human are celebrated in music and song with pathos and humor. But poetics triumph in the end, the gods win, and only poetry softens the tragedy of the betrayed Calisto. The score is constructed mainly of flexible recitative, arioso passages, and short, concerted arias, and the pace of the action moves quickly. The arias reflect the many moods of the characters, and the score is filled with lively contrasts.

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