Orfeo
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Orfeo (L'Orfeo, favola in musica) is one of the earliest works recognized as an opera, composed by Claudio Monteverdi with text by Alessandro Striggio for the annual carnival of Mantua. It was first performed at the Accademia degl'Invaghiti in Mantua in February of 1607 and on February 24 at the Court Theatre in Mantua that same year, and was published in Venice in 1609. The opera saw its modern debut in 1904 in a concert version in Paris.
The action is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, who attempts to rescue his dead lover Eurydice from Hades, the underworld.
Orfeo is in five acts, with a prologue:
- Prologue. A "Spirit of Music" explains the power of music, and specifically the power of Orfeo, whose music is so powerful that it is capable of moving the gods themselves.
- Act 1. Orfeo and Euridice celebrate their wedding day.
- Act 2. Orfeo receives the terrible news that Euridice has died; he resolves to go down to the underworld himself to rescue her. He sings a poignant aria on the transient fragility of human happiness.
- Act 3. Hope accompanies Orfeo to the entrance to Hades. Orfeo meets Charon, the guardian of Hades, and attempts to seduce him into letting him pass, by the beauty of his singing. At first unsuccessful, he tries again using his lyre; Charon falls peacefully asleep; Orfeo passes and descends into Hades.
- Act 4. Proserpine, the queen of Hades, is moved by Orfeo's music, and persuades Pluto, king of Hades, to let Euridice go. Pluto acquiesces on one condition: that Orfeo not look back as Euridice follows him back up into the light, and back into life. At first he leaves with Euridice following him; his doubts, however, impel him to look back over his shoulder, and Euridice vanishes like a phantom before his eyes. Despondent, he returns to Earth.
- Act 5. Orfeo is consumed by grief, and Apollo, his father, comes down from the heavens to take his son away, where he can behold the image of Euridice forever in the stars.
Orfeo is marked by its dramatic power and lively orchestration. It is an early example of a composer assigning specific instruments to parts; while composers of the Venetian School had been doing this, with varying precision, for about two decades, the instrumentation in the case of Orfeo is unusually explicit. The plot is clearly delineated with musical contrasts, and the melodies are linear and clear; much of the writing uses the style of monody which was pioneered by the Florentine Camerata in the last decades of the 16th century. With this opera Monteverdi had created an entirely new style of music, the dramma per musica, or musical drama. This idea of theatrical works set to music was taken from the notion that the Ancient Greeks had sung their plays.
Monteverdi's operas are usually labelled "early Baroque," or sometimes "pre-Baroque." Music in northern Italy at this time was in transition between the style of the late Renaissance and the early Baroque, and progressive composers such as Monteverdi combined the stylistic trends prevalent in the various musical centers such as Florence, Venice and Ferrara.it:L'Orfeo