She came (to Paris), she sang (for Louis XIV), she conquered. Abandoned by her aristocratic husband when he upped and joined the army, the penniless Venetian-born Antonia Bembo (c. 1640 to c. 1720) was seeking refuge for herself and her three children and she found it. A student of Francesco Cavalli (best remembered today for his wacky mythological fantasy La Callisto), Bembo composed in all the major genres, bequeathing six volumes to the Bibliothèque National. Ercole Amante (Hercules in Love), her only opera, recycles a libretto previously used by Cavalli and covers very much the ground Handel did in Hercules. Again, the hero dies of a cloak poisoned with the blood of the centaur Nessus. In Handel, it’s his justly suspicious wife Dejanira who sends it to him in the mistaken belief that it will restore his love for her. In this version it’s Iole (the captive princess who has excited Dejanira’s jealous fury) who is tricked into sending the cloak, which consumes Hercules alive. The good news: he ascends to heaven, where he and Beauty are joined in marriage among the immortals. Bembo knew a thing or two about errant spouses, and I wonder: did she roll her eyes? The German bass-baritone Andreas Wolf leads the cast as Hercules. The scintillating mezzo Deepa Johnny is Dejanira; the soprano Ana Viera Leite is Iole, the thorn in Dejanira’s side. Leonardo Garcìa Alarcón, who eight years ago had a smash at the Paris Opera with Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, returns for an eagerly awaited encore. —Matthew Gurewitsch