L'Orfeo

Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) is where the history of opera begins—at least in the opera house, where it’s the earliest work still regularly performed. L’Orfeo retells the Greek myth of the musician Orpheus. When his new bride Euridice dies on their wedding day, he travels to the Underworld to plead with the Gods to spare her. His request is granted, on one condition: at no point on their journey back may he turn to look at her, or he will lose his wife forever. Thirty years separate L’Orfeo from Monteverdi’s two other surviving operas, Il ritorno (1639) and L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643). While the latter were composed for the paying audiences of Venice’s public theatres (who demanded scandal, sensatio and intrigue), L’Orfeo was a private commission for the aristocratic Gonzaga court in Mantua. The result is an elegant drama set in a pastoral world so different to the grubby human politics of the later works. Musically, it’s extraordinarily sophisticated—unified by large-scale structures and recurring themes. Monteverdi takes the typical vocal style of the period—a speech-imitating recitative—and amplifies it with arias, instrumental ritornelli and choruses, creating a rich musical tapestry. At the heart of the piece is Orfeo’s “Possente spirto”, an overwhelmingly powerful, emotional aria in which he begs Charon to let him enter the Underworld.