Monteverdis Orfeo is one of the seminal works in the canon of Western music, the first great opera. When it was first given on February 24, 1607, in a room in the ducal palace at Mantua, the history of the genre dated back less than a decade. The direct model for Orfeo was one of the earliest operas, Jacopo Peris Eurydice, first performed in Florence in 1600 -- although dramatic settings of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice including music dated back at least a century earlier, stemming from the Renaissance fascination with Greek antiquity. The opera was commissioned by Francesco Gonzaga, the son of the Duke of Mantua (Monteverdis first patron), for the Carnival season of 1607, and was given before the membership of the Accademia degli Invaghiti, one of the many artistic academies that played a major role in Italian cultural life. The libretto for Orfeo was the work of Alessandro Striggio, who based his version of the legend largely upon Ovids Metamorphosis. The drama is then unfolded throughout five short acts which move from a pastoral scene in which Orpheus and Eurydice are celebrating their wedding day with a group of shepherds, through to the great dramatic turning point marked by the arrival of a Messenger giving the stunned assembly news of Eurydices death. https://youtube/watch?v=_7Wo-3DtI34
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 22:54:24 +0000
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