jove and juno

"The very first opera publicly performed in Venice, Andromeda, was already elaborate, as [this] account printed in 1637 . . . shows: 'The sky opened and one saw Jove and Juno in glory and other divinities. This great machine descended to the ground to the accompaniment of a concerto of voices and instruments truly from heaven. The two heroes, joined to each other, it conducted to the sky. Here the royal and ever worthy occasion had an end.'"

--Leslie Horry, from A Concise History of Opera, 1972.