14 December 1645: for the pleasure of the Queen Mother Anne of Austria, and attended by a young King Louis XIV, Cardinal Mazarin put on the first Italian opera in Paris. The Italian company, invited at great expense, performed Sacrati's La Finta Pazza, composed in Venice in 1641. To capture the young 7-year-old monarch's interest, a flurry of monkeys, bears and ostriches was added! The opulent set decoration by Giacomo Torelli, boasting machinery the likes of which had never before been seen in France, cemented the triumph of this "Feigned Madwoman", which also featured the first major scene of madness in history: Deidamia must feign madness to keep hold of her lover, the famous Achilles, himself disguised as a woman to escape his fate! Leonardo García Alarcón leads a beautiful and colorful revival of this foundational masterpiece for opera in France, a true miracle of music.