Delighted to catch this historic and much anticipated Vivaldi ROH premier on OO3. Highly recommended, as are SR’s conversations with Susan Orlando, artistic director of the Vivaldi Edition from Naïve Records (French independent recording label based in Paris). Interesting comment from SO about why we’ve had to wait so long to see live Vivaldi opera in the UK. It has everything to do with the dearth of prior recordings. When reaching a decision about whether to stage an opera, theatre managers to rely heavily on the availability of previous recordings and there just aren't any. Is this because opera audiences prefer to see a production they’re already familiar with from a recording, making it risky to stage a less familiar opera?