About the work
Favola in musica by Jacopo Peri to a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, written on commission from the Florentine nobleman and patron Jacopo Corsi, who also contributed to the composition himself. The work was first performed during Carnival 1598 (still 1597 by the Florentine calendar) at the Palazzo Corsi in Florence and is considered the first opera in the history of music.
Plot
The god Apollo kills the dragon Python and then mocks the god of love, Amor, who punishes him by making him fall in love with the nymph Dafne. Dafne rejects Apollo's advances and flees from him; to escape him for good, she has her father, the river god Peneo, transform her into a laurel tree. Apollo mourns his loss and from then on crowns himself with her leaves.
Cultural significance
Only a few fragments of Peri's music for Dafne survive, including at least two numbers written not by Peri but by Corsi himself. Even so, the fully preserved libretto makes the work the earliest documented attempt to set an entire drama to music rather than merely inserting isolated musical numbers — a step that led, within a few years, to the genre of opera.