A 337-year-old opera, out of mothballs

The history of opera is a long parade of works that appeared and were quickly forgotten, punctuated by the small number of masterpieces that continue to hold the stage today.

The number of unjustly overlooked works is small, but it’s always exciting to turn over a new stone and see what might be hiding underneath.

Ars Minerva, the fledgling opera organization founded by soprano Céline Ricci, takes a foray into the unknown this weekend with “The Amazons in the Fortunate Isles,” an opera by Carlo Pallavicino that has evidently lain undisturbed in the Venetian archives since its premiere in 1679.