The actual performance was visually unsatisfactory, which must be why my memory is so discreet about it, but my failure to remember the staging surprises me because the music was composed and timed to a tightly fixed plan of stage action. The form is so specifically theatrical that two episodes make little sense in a concert performances: Pluto’s mute march-aria for oboe and basses, and the sarabande interlude that precedes the appearance of Mercury.