L'Orfeo

An opera by Claudio Monteverdi, first performed in 1607, that retells the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Its blend of expressive solo singing, instrumental color, and dramatic action helped establish opera as a form.

Recitative: A vocal style that follows speech rhythms to deliver dialogue and advance dramatic action. Monteverdi uses speechlike singing to carry the myth’s dialogue and unfolding events.
Claudio Monteverdi: An Italian composer whose music bridged Renaissance practice and the Baroque style. He composed the opera and shaped its distinctive balance of expressive voices and instruments.
Toccata (L'Orfeo): A brass fanfare that opens Monteverdi’s opera before the prologue. The opening fanfare announces courtly splendor and establishes a ceremonial frame.
Euridice (Peri opera): An opera by Jacopo Peri, first performed in 1600, based on the Orpheus myth. Peri’s earlier opera provides a direct comparison for Monteverdi’s treatment of the same myth.
Ritornello: A recurring instrumental passage that separates or frames sections of a vocal work. Recurring instrumental passages help unify scenes and mark transitions in the opera.
Alessandro Striggio: An Italian poet and courtier who wrote the libretto for L'Orfeo. His libretto adapts the Orpheus myth into the opera’s sequence of scenes.
Possente spirto: Orpheus’s elaborate song to Charon in Act III of L'Orfeo. This virtuosic appeal is the opera’s central test of music’s power over its audience.
Dafne (Peri opera): An opera by Jacopo Peri, first performed in 1598, generally regarded as the earliest opera. Its pioneering court production formed part of the experiment Monteverdi’s work developed.
Basso continuo: A continuous bass line with improvised chords that supports much Baroque music. Its harmonic support underpins the singers and shapes the opera’s instrumental texture.
Accademia degli Invaghiti: A Mantuan literary academy active in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Members of this academy commissioned the work for a court celebration.

Linked from 4 pages