About the work
Opera in a prologue and three scenes by Giulio Caccini after Ottavio Rinuccini's libretto, first performed on 5 December 1602 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Caccini set the same text that Jacopo Peri had already composed two years earlier for the wedding of Maria de' Medici and Henry IV of France, but had his own setting printed as early as 1600, ahead of Peri's staged premiere.
Plot
The singer Orfeo learns that his beloved Euridice has died of a snakebite and descends to the underworld with the help of the goddess Venus. His pleading song moves Pluto and Proserpina to pity; unlike the ancient myth, the opera ends happily, with both lovers returning together to Arcadia.
Cultural significance
As one of the earliest surviving operas, the work stands at the genre's beginning, setting Rinuccini's text in the reciting style (stile recitativo) developed by the Florentine Camerata. Despite its importance to music history it remains rarely staged, with a notable revival at the 2013 Innsbruck Festival of Early Music.