Jean-Baptiste Lully’s 1678 Psyché saw him team up with librettist Pierre Corneille (Louis XIV’s mistress had been so offended by Philippe Quinault’s libretto for Isis the previous year that she’d persuaded the king to forbid Lully to work with his regular collaborator again). As a result, Corneille resurrected a former collaboration of his with Molière, reworking the story of Psyche, a beautiful mortal driven by Cupid at the behest of a jealous Venus to undergo a series of onerous trials before finally being granted immorality.

Usefully, Lully had written the music for Molière and Corneille’s original 1671 play, but cannibalising their former work for an operatic tragedie lyrique resulted in a storyline that is a little lumpy (and like its original, a trifle slight). Nevertheless, despite being a rush job (the whole thing was cobbled together in just three weeks!), the level of musical invention is high. Highlights include “Deh, piangete al pianto mio”, a lament that became highly popular at the time and was written to be sung in fashionable Italian, and a scene...