Claudio Monteverdi's "L'Orfeo" is a groundbreaking opera that has stood the test of time and continues to be performed and celebrated today. It was first performed in 1607 at the Court of Mantua and is widely regarded as one of the earliest operas in the history of Western music.
The story of "L'Orfeo" is based on the Greek myth of Orpheus, a musician who is able to charm all living things with his music. In the opera, Orfeo (Orpheus) is grief-stricken after the death of his wife Euridice and decides to journey to the underworld to bring her back. With the help of the god Apollo and his music, Orfeo is able to charm the guardians of the underworld and persuade them to allow Euridice to return to the land of the living. However, there is a catch: Orfeo is not allowed to look back at Euridice until they have both returned to the land of the living. Tragically, Orfeo cannot resist the temptation and looks back at Euridice, causing her to return to the underworld and Orfeo to be left alone with his grief.
One of the most notable aspects of "L'Orfeo" is its use of music to convey emotion and drive the plot forward. Monteverdi's use of recitative, arias, and choruses helped to shape the development of opera as a genre and set the stage for future composers. The music in "L'Orfeo" is highly expressive and effectively conveys the emotions of the characters, from Orfeo's sorrow and desperation to the joy and triumph of his journey to the underworld.
Another significant aspect of "L'Orfeo" is its use of spectacle. The opera was performed at the Court of Mantua and was designed to impress and entertain the audience with elaborate stage sets, costumes, and special effects. This use of spectacle was a key element of early opera and helped to establish it as a popular form of entertainment.
In conclusion, "L'Orfeo" is a groundbreaking opera that has had a lasting impact on the history of Western music. Its use of music to convey emotion and its emphasis on spectacle have made it a timeless classic that continues to be performed and celebrated today.
L' Orfeo
. Rasi could sing in both the tenor and bass ranges "with exquisite style. The chorus of spirits sings that Orfeo, having overcome Hades, was in turn overcome by his passions. Orfeo replies that it would be unworthy not to follow the counsel of such a wise father, and together they ascend. The elements from which Monteverdi constructed his first opera score—the aria, the strophic song, recitative, choruses, dances, dramatic musical interludes—were, as conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt has pointed out, not created by him, but "he blended the entire stock of newest and older possibilities into a unity that was indeed new".
Ritornello A lei volt' ho 'l camin per l' aër cieco, a l' Inferno non già, ch' ovunque stassi tanta bellezza il paradiso hà seco. Suddenly distracted by an off-stage commotion, Orfeo looks round; immediately, the image of Euridice begins to fade. Together with Duke Vincent's two young sons, Francesco and Fernandino, he was a member of Mantua's exclusive intellectual society, the Accademia degli Invaghiti, which provided the chief outlet for the city's theatrical works. In the first, Francesco Gonzaga informs his brother that the "musical play" will be performed tomorrow; it is clear from earlier correspondence that this refers to L'Orfeo. Il pastor fido, and Euridice. Nymphs and shepherds sing and dance at his apotheosis.
Opera's First Master: The Musical Dramas of Claudio Monteverdi. After the war, Hindemith's attempted period reconstruction of the work was followed in 1955 by an edition from August Wenzinger that remained in use for many years. At that time it was usual to allow each interpreter of the work freedom to make local decisions, based on the orchestral forces at their disposal. Retrieved 26 March 2014. He departs, and the chorus resumes its lament. While the honour of the first ever opera goes to Jacopo Peri's Dafne, and the earliest surviving opera is Euridice also by Peri , L'Orfeo has the honour of being the earliest surviving opera that is still regularly performed today.
EURIDICE Io non dirò qual sia nel tuo gioire, Orfeo, la gioia mia, che non hò meco il core, ma teco stassi in compagnia d' Amore. Moved by her pleas, Plutone agrees on the condition that, as he leads Euridice towards the world, Orfeo must not look back. His opera Orfeo was first performed at Mantua in 1607 with an orchestra of about 40 instruments, including flutes, cornetts, trumpets, trombones, strings, and keyboard instruments. What is the name of the city where Orfeos court is based? Orfeo leaves the scene and his destiny is left uncertain, for the Bacchantes devote themselves for the rest of the opera to wild singing and dancing in praise of Bacchus. After the prologue, act 1 follows in the form of a pastoral idyll. Towards the end of the 16th century innovative Florentine musicians were developing the intermedio—a long-established form of musical interlude inserted between the acts of spoken dramas—into increasingly elaborate forms. By the early 17th century the traditional L'Orfeo moved this process out of its experimental era and provided the first fully developed example of the new genre.
Ritornello PASTORI Alcun non sia che disperato in preda si doni al duol, benché talhor n' assaglia possente sì che la nostra vita inforsa. Whether these are simply descriptive of an early production or are meant to be prescriptive for all future performances is something that each performer must decide. The first staged New York performance, by the New York City Opera under Leopold Stokowski on 29 September 1960, saw the American operatic debut of Gérard Souzay, one of several baritones who have sung the role of Orfeo. London: Faber and Faber. Io la Musica son, ch'ai dolci accenti So far tranquillo ogni turbato core, Et hor di nobil ira, et hor d'amore Posso infiammar le più gelate menti. Nonetheless, there is valuable information here that must be followed.
What has come down to us in the published scores reflects the more genteel ending of Monteverdi's later productions: Apollo takes Orpheus up into the heavens. Orfeo and Euridice sing of their love for each other before leaving with most of the group for the wedding ceremony in the temple. Orfeo returns with the main chorus, and sings with them of the beauties of nature. It was written in 1607 for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua. Dafne Enter Jacopo Peri 1561—1633 , who composed Dafne 1597 , which many consider to be the first opera. Opera as a musical genre was the development of a group of Florentines who were looking for a way to present plays in music.
An instrumental toccata English: "tucket", meaning a flourish on trumpets precedes the entrance of La musica, representing the "spirit of music", who sings a prologue of five stanzas of verse. When played on period wind instruments the sound can be startling to modern audiences; Redlich calls it "shattering". According to Ringer, Striggio's original ending was almost certainly used at the opera's premiere, but there is no doubt that Monteverdi believed the revised ending was aesthetically correct. He chose, in fact, to write a somewhat muted version of this bloody finale, in which the Bacchantes threaten Orfeo's destruction but his actual fate is left in doubt. Harnoncourt indicates that in Monteverdi's day the numbers of players and singers together, and the small rooms in which performances were held, often meant that the audience barely numbered more than the performers.
A Portrait of the Artist: The Legends of Orpheus and Their Use in Medieval and Renaissance Aesthetics. An edition of the score by the minor Italian composer Giovanni Orefice received several concert performances in Italy and elsewhere before and after the First World War. The importance of L'Orfeo is not that it was the first work of its kind, but that it was the first attempt to apply the full resources of the art of music, as then evolved, to the nascent genre of opera. London: Faber and Faber. Monteverdi's L'Orfeo moved this process out of its experimental era, and provided the first fully developed example within the new genre. Led by Jacopo Corsi, these successors to the renowned Camerata were responsible for the first work generally recognized as belonging to the genre of opera: Dafne, composed by Corsi and Jacopo Peri and performed in Florence in 1598.
