★★☆☆☆
Seeking to escape the sleazy plots of Italian verismo opera, the composer Pietro Mascagni had the idea of adapting the Lady Godiva legend of a noblewoman forced to ride naked through Coventry — a story that’s not at all sleazy, of course. The resulting opera, Isabeau (premiered in 1911), does slightly adapt the legend. The lady is now a king’s pious and virginal daughter who infuriates her father by rejecting all her suitors — perhaps because (this being Italian opera’s version of British history) they have names such as Ethelberto of Argyle.
There are other improbabilities. One penalty of riding naked for an hour through Coventry, the king tells us, is that Isabeau will be burnt by “the sun’s harsh rays”. More crucially, the