| The earliest evidence of the construction of an opera | | | | the stage, Orpheus enters with two shepherds. |
| was in circumstances of no very great importance, | | | | Daphne presently returns, and relates to them the |
| and only slightly connected with music. In 1579 Bianca | | | | death of Eurydice from the bite of a serpent, and the |
| Capello was married to Francisco de Medici, son of | | | | first act concludes with the lament of Orpheus for his |
| Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The wedding took | | | | lost Eurydice. |
| place in Venice and was grand occasion, and part of | | | | In the second act, Venus leads Orpheus to Hades, in |
| the festivities included dramatic representations | | | | order that he may beg of Pluto the restoration of |
| accompanied with music. | | | | Eurydice to life. At first, Pluto is stubborn, but after |
| In the suite of the Grand Duke were several | | | | much pleading, he yields, and the last act depicts the |
| Florentines, who took a considerable interest in music, | | | | happy return of Orpheus with Eurydice. |
| and these Florentine gentlemen were very unhappy | | | | The orchestra consisted of but four individuals, Signer |
| with the music and entertainments they witnessed in | | | | Jacopo Corsi, who played the harpsichord behind the |
| Venice. | | | | scenes; Don Garzia Montalro, who played the |
| This music was specially written for the occasion by | | | | chitarone, or large guitar; Messer Giovannibatista dal |
| two of the most distinguished composers of the time, | | | | Violono, the viol da gamba and Messer Giovanni Lapi, a |
| Andrea Gabrielli and Luca Marenzio, one of the | | | | large lute. |
| greatest of madrigal writers, so that it is probable that | | | | Thus, the orchestra in this early music drama |
| the Florentines had little to complain about as regards | | | | amounted to the seventeenth century equivalent of a |
| its technical excellence. | | | | piano, two guitars and a cello. Throughout the opera |
| What they objected to, however, was its lack of | | | | there is not one spoken word, all the dialogue is |
| relation to the words and situations amidst which it | | | | expressed in recitative, and the airs themselves |
| was introduced and on their return to Florence, they | | | | approximate somewhat to recitative, and of this a |
| formed themselves into a society for the improvement | | | | notable example is the pathetic lament at the end of |
| of music, more especially in connection with the drama. | | | | the first act. The chorus is also handled in a manner |
| The problem with which these Florentines proposed to | | | | very different from that of older writers, very apparent |
| solve was not a simple one, and almost identically the | | | | efforts being made to render it as spontaneous, |
| same as that which confronted Wagner more than | | | | seeming, and natural to the course of the narrative as |
| two hundred and fifty years later, to present a drama | | | | possible. |
| in which the music and words should be on an | | | | A further development of the music drama is |
| absolutely equal footing, and equally expressive of the | | | | displayed in another setting of the story of Orpheus |
| sentiment of the moment. | | | | and Eurydice, by Glaudio Monteverde (1568-1643), |
| Passing over the first of the society's experiments in | | | | under the title of Orfeo and after a brief sketch of this |
| dramatic music, for the reason that there is little or no | | | | work; we must turn to other phases of Renaissance |
| information still existing, we come to a work of real | | | | musical art. |
| importance and interest, the Euridice of Ottavio | | | | Monteverde's Orfeo was first produced at Mantua in |
| Rinuccini and Jacopo Peri, Rinuccini furnishing the poem | | | | 1607, and like Peri's Euridice, its production formed part |
| and Peri the music. | | | | of the festivities of a wedding, in this case that of the |
| True to the spirit of the Renaissance, which in all things | | | | young Prince Francisco of Mantua. |
| studied to apply old principles to new requirements, the | | | | This was not Monteverde's first essay as a dramatic |
| Florentine reformers looked to antiquity for guidance in | | | | composer, for he had, earlier in the same year, |
| their innovations. This was to be the start of a new | | | | produced a work entitled Ariadne, in which he gave |
| kind of musical entertainment and maybe the birth of | | | | strong proof of his originality. His Orfeo, however, |
| the opera. | | | | affords us a more distinct idea of the advance which |
| The opera is in three acts. The scene of the first is set | | | | the new dramatic music had made within the |
| in the country, where Eurydice and Daphne are | | | | comparatively short space of seven years. |
| discovered amid a group of nymphs. When they leave | | | | |