Intermedio: Towards the end of the 16th century innovative Florentine musicians were developing the intermedio—a long-established form of musical interlude inserted between the acts of spoken dramas—into increasingly elaborate forms. Led by Jacopo Corsi, these successors to the renowned Florentine Camerata were responsible for the first work generally recognized as belonging to the genre of opera: The early opera, Dafne, composed by Corsi and Jacopo Peri and performed in Florence in 1598. This work combined elements of madrigal singing and monody with dancing and instrumental passages. Only fragments of its music still exist, but several other Florentine works of the same period. Peri’s Euridice and Giulio Caccini’s identically titled Euridice—survive complete. These last two works were the first of many musical representations of the Orpheus myth, and as such were direct precursors of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo moved this process of the intermedio out of its experimental era and provided the first fully developed example of the new genre, opera. After its initial performance the work was staged again in Mantua. After the composer’s death in 1643 the opera went unperformed for many years, and was largely forgotten until a revival of interest in the late nineteenth century.
L’Orfeo (SV 318)
Monteverdi was called the “last great madrigalist and the first great opera composer” His music straddles the late Renaissance and early Baroque. The early Baroque opera L’Orfeo, written in 1607 for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua, is one of his most significant compositions The libretto, by Alessandro Striggio, is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus. It and tells the story of his Orpheus’s descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride, Eurydice back to the living world. L’Orfeo has the honor of being the earliest surviving opera that is still regularly performed today. However , the honor of the first ever opera goes to Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, and the earliest surviving opera also by Perti is named Euridice 
Figure 1. Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga, Monteverdi’s employer at Mantua
Monteverdi’s Work (Orfeo)
When Monteverdi wrote the music for L’Orfeo he had a thorough grounding in theatrical music. He had been employed at the Gonzaga court for 16 years, much of it as a performer or arranger of stage music, The elements from which Monteverdi constructed his first opera score—the aria, the strophic song, recitative, choruses, dances, dramatic musical interludes—were not created by him. However “he blended the entire stock of newest and older possibilities into a unity that was indeed new. In his composition he states the orchestral requirements at the beginning of his score, but in accordance with the practice of the day. He does not specify their exact instrumentation. It was usual to allow the performer of the work make local decisions, based on the orchestral forces available but this could differ sharply from place to place. Another practice of the time was to allow singers to embellish their arias. Each act of the opera deals with a single element of the story, and each ends with a chorus. It was the contemporary custom for scene shifts to take place in sight of the audience, these changes being reflected musically by changes in instrumentation, key and style.
Synopsis of L’Orfeo
The action takes place in two contrasting locations: the fields of Thrace (Acts 1, 2 and 5) and the Underworld (Acts 3 and 4). An instrumental introduction – Toccata (a flourish on trumpets – announcing fanfare begins precedes the opera. This selection is performed by period instruments, cornetts and sackbuts and drums. Current operas of today would feature an overture or prelude here. Often works did not specify what instruments would be used. However, one work where instruments were specified is L’Orfeo. The instrumentation is exceptionally varied with multiple harpsichords and lutes with a bass violin in the pastoral scenes followed by lamenting to the accompaniment of organo di legno and chitarrone, while Charon stands watch to the sound of a regal. .
Act I
The curtain rises on Act 1 to reveal a pastoral scene. Orfeo and Euridice enter together with a chorus of nymphs and shepherds, who act in the manner of a Greek chorus, commenting on the action both as a group and as individuals. A shepherd announces that this is the couple’s wedding day; the chorus responds, first in a stately invocation (“Come, Hymen, O come”) and then in a joyful dance (“Leave the mountains, leave the fountains”). Orfeo and Euridice sing of their love for each other before leaving with most of the group for the wedding ceremony in the temple.
Act 2
Orfeo returns with the main chorus, and sings with them of the beauties of nature. The mood of contentment is abruptly ended when La messaggera enters, bringing the news that, while gathering flowers, Euridice has received a fatal snakebite. The chorus expresses its anguish: “Ah, bitter happening, ah, impious and cruel fate!” Orfeo, after venting his grief and incredulity (“Thou art dead, my life, and I am breathing?”), declares his intention to descend into the Underworld and persuade its ruler to allow Euridice to return to life.
In particular listen to this very dramatic aria: Tu se Morta. (You Are Dead) and sense his grief beginning at 8:00 and ending at 10:30. However other parts of this selections give good insight into the style and drama of this opera.
Act 3
Orfeo is guided by Speranza to the gates of Hades. Orfeo is now confronted with the ferryman Caronte, who refuses to take him across the river Styx. Orfeo takes up his lyre and plays and Caronte is soothed into sleep.
“Possente spirto, e formidabil nume” (“Mighty spirit and formidable god”) is a key aria from Act 3 of Claudio Monteverdi’s opera L’Orfeo, where Orpheus attempts to persuade Charon to allow him to pass into Hades and find Euridice. Seizing his chance, Orfeo steals the ferryman’s boat and crosses the river.,
Act 4
In the Underworld, Proserpina, Queen of Hades, who has been deeply affected by Orfeo’s singing, petitions King Plutone, her husband, for Euridice’s release. Plutone agrees on the condition that, as he leads Euridice towards the world, Orfeo must not look back. If he does, “a single glance will condemn him to eternal loss.” Orfeo enters, leading Euridice and singing confidently that on that day he will rest on his wife’s white bosom. But as he sings a note of doubt creeps in: “Who will assure me that she is following?” Suddenly distracted by an off-stage commotion, Orfeo looks round; immediately, the image of Euridice begins to fade. She sings, despairingly: “Losest thou me through too much love?” and disappears.
Act 5
Back in the fields of Thrace, Orfeo has a long soliloquy in which he laments his loss, praises Euridice’s beauty and resolves that his heart will never again be pierced by Cupid’s arrow. An off-stage echo repeats his final phrases. Suddenly, in a cloud, Apollo descends from the heavens and chastises him: “Why dost thou give thyself up as prey to rage and grief?” He invites Orfeo to leave the world and join him in the heavens, where he will recognise Euridice’s likeness in the stars. Orfeo replies that it would be unworthy not to follow the counsel of such a wise father, and together they ascend. A shepherds’ chorus concludes that “he who sows in suffering shall reap the fruit of every grace,” before the opera ends with a vigorous moresca.
Listen to the expressive singing in these concluding arias. This music in Baroque opera is very expressive and emotional.