Opera History

One of the earliest musical works that we recognize as an opera was created for an annual carnival in Mantua on February 24, 1607. Its creator revolutionary opera composer Claudio Monteverdi created it on the text by Alessandro Striggio. Today we know this early opera under the name The Legend of Orpheus or in Italian as “La Favola d’Orfeo”. Pretty simple libretto is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, who attempts to rescue his dead lover Eurydice from the underworld.

The significance of this early opera is in its combination of new Baroque music genre and Renaissance elements. Besides, The Legend of the Orpheus is the first large composition that survived to our days with its exact instrumentation, while many other operas of that period are lost to us. It is an entirely new style of music which we know today as musical drama.

The Legend of Orpheus consists of 5 acts, Even today it preserved its dramatic power and lively orchestration. That’s why, Starting with its modern debut in 1904 in Paris, this Monteverdi opera returned to us and since that time saw many productions.