About the work
Claudio Monteverdi's "favola in musica" was premiered in 1607 at the court of Mantua and is regarded as the first opera in the history of music worthy of the name. The work, on a libretto by Alessandro Striggio, marks the birth of music theatre as an independent art form.
Plot
The singer Orfeo celebrates his wedding to the nymph Euridice, but a snakebite kills the bride. Orfeo descends into the underworld and, with his singing, softens the ruler of the dead, who returns Euridice to him — on the condition that he not turn to look at her. Orfeo cannot resist the urge and loses Euridice a second time. The god Apollo takes pity on his son and raises him to the stars.
Cultural significance
L'Orfeo is the birth certificate of opera and demonstrated for the first time that music could carry a dramatic action and express human emotions in all their depth. The work founded a genre that has shaped the music theatre of the Western world for more than 400 years.