L‘Ercole Amante (Hercules in Love) by Francesco Cavalli

A well-known married man falls in love with his son’s fiancee, and she seems to fall for him as well. He stays married, and she continues to plan her own wedding. But all the while they keep meeting for increasingly obsessive trysts. Of course, this dangerous triangle can’t last forever, and it ends badly for all concerned. Recognize that little synopsis? If you thought of Josephine Hart’s 1992 novel Damage, or the Louis Malle film based on that book, score two points. But, if you also remembered a 330 year-old opera by Cavalli called “Hercules In Love,” you can go to the head of the class.

Someone once said that there are really only 12 plots in all of fiction, and that every so-called “new” novel, or movie, or television program, is only a variation on one of them. One of those dozen plots is the one we just outlined: obsessive love - with the word “love” used advisedly. REAL love displays none of the characteristics of obsession. At bottom, obsessive love seems to be more a type of mental illness than a form of deep and abiding affection. The clinical term for it is erotomania.

But whatever the term, it’s turned out to be a pretty popular form of entertainment. One of the best film examples is “Play Misty For Me”: a nighttime DJ who reads romantic poetry and plays seductive music becomes the target of an obsessed listener -- a woman who can’t understand why the DJ needs a girlfriend when she’s willing to be his, well, love slave.

And then there’s “Fatal Attraction.” In this one, married man Michael Douglas almost doesn’t live to regret his weekend fling with that seriously disturbed Glenn Close character. He regards her as a dalliance; she sees him as the man of her dreams. And she’s by God gonna have him, even if it means stewing the family pet to get his attention.

Of course, stories about love and craziness are far older than our 20th century novels, films, or headlines. Given human nature, that’s hardly surprising. There are stories of ancient gods and goddesses becoming obsessed with fellow immortals, or even mortals. And for centuries, there have been writers, dramatists, and composers around to turn those stories into potboilers - the sort of entertainments that fill theaters with people ready to pay for the privilege of being watching other people behave in a dangerously foolish manner. And that brings us to this week’s opera, “Hercules in Love” by Cavalli, featured in a production by the BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL

This week on NPR’s At the Opera, we’ll bone up on that opera and its subject matter, obsessive love, with an expert on the subject, Dr. Jonathan Segal. We’ll also hear about the composer Cavalli from conductor and early opera advocate Jane Glover. And we’ll hunt down the opera’s musical treasures with regular commentator Thomson Smilley.

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