"Orfeo" Performed

L'Orfeo, an opera by the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, was first performed in Mantua in 1607 at the court of the Gonzaga family. Based on the Greek myth of Orpheus, who descends to the underworld to reclaim his beloved Eurydice, it set a libretto by Alessandro Striggio.

The work is often regarded as the earliest opera still regularly performed today and a landmark in the development of the form. Monteverdi called for an unusually large and varied group of instruments, drawing on the resources of a substantial ensemble to create vivid dramatic and expressive effects.

Through its blend of recitative, song, choruses, and instrumental sections, L'Orfeo demonstrated the dramatic power of the new genre that had recently emerged in Florence. Monteverdi's achievement helped establish opera as a major art form and marked an important moment in the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music.