Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The overture to the 1874 revision is a 393-bar piece, in which Jupiter's minuet and John Styx's song recur, interspersed with many themes from the score including "J'ai vu le Dieu Bacchus", the couplets "Je suis Vénus", the Rondeau des métamorphoses, the "Partons, partons" section of the Act 2 finale, and the Act 4 galop.
The story of the opera follows the Greek legend of Orpheus, who descends to Hades to persuade the gods of the Underworld to allow him to bring his dead bride, Eurydice, back to the living world. His plea is granted, on the condition that he does not look back while leading Eurydice out of Hades.
L'Orfeo (SV 318) (Italian pronunciation: [lorˈfɛːo]), or La favola d'Orfeo [la ˈfaːvola dorˈfɛːo], is a late Renaissance/early Baroque favola in musica, or opera, by Claudio Monteverdi, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio.
Orpheus (tenor) sings that he is no longer living, for, with his wife dead, he himself no longer has a heart (senza cor). Charon (bass-baritone) is initially unmoved, but when Orpheus continues singing, and then plays his lyre, Charon is lulled to sleep. Orpheus crosses over the Styx in Charon's boat, singing Rendetemi il mio ben, tartarei Numi!
Orpheus Playing the Violin, 17th-century painting by Cesare Gennari. Operas based on the Orphean myths, and especially the story of Orpheus' journey to the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice, were amongst the earliest examples of the art form and continue to be written into the 21st century.
The opera opens just as Orpheus is about to reach the end of the corridor. He turns around to make sure Eurydice is still there, thus condemning her to remain in the underworld forever. In a series of arias, the couple sing to each other as Eurydice retreats down the corridor back to the underworld, leaving Orpheus to return to the world alone.
Orpheus played with his lyre a song so heartbreaking that even Hades himself was moved to compassion. The god told Orpheus that he could take Eurydice back with him, but under one condition: she would have to follow behind him while walking out from the caves of the underworld, and he could not turn to look at her as they walked.
L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice (The Soul of the Philosopher, or Orpheus and Euridice), Hob. 28/13, is an opera in Italian in four acts by Joseph Haydn and is one of the last two operas written during his life, the other being Armida (1783).The libretto, by Carlo Francesco Badini, is based on the myth of Orpheus and Euridice as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses.