As it was written for a happy occasion, his version ends not with the horrific mutilation of the hero, but with the intervention of Apollo, who spirits Orfeo up to heaven, where he recognises Euridice’s likeness in the stars.Īmong other twists, it is Charon, the ferryman, rather than Cerberus, who is charmed by Orpheus’ song at the entrance to the Underworld.

Through a combination of brilliant craftsmanship, musical innovation and a new approach to drama, he laid the foundation for what we call opera today (although he called it a favola in musica, or ‘fable in music’). Monteverdi composed L’Orfeo for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua. A second version was composed using the same libretto in the same year by Giulio Caccini and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo of 1607 was closely based on Peri’s original. The Orpheus legend was the subject of the first three operas ever written: the first to have survived to the present day, Jacopo Peri’s Euridice, was written in 1600. No wonder then, that his story was seized upon by the first creators of opera in 17 th-century Italy, who wanted to move the souls of their listeners through music”. Orpheus, our hero, can charm wild beasts and silence the winds. Specifically, says Laurence Cummings, music director/conductor for Orpheus: Monteverdi Reimagined, “the Orpheus myth tells of the power of music. Orpheus has been a talisman for composers, poets and painters throughout history: ‘Once and forever it’s Orpheus, whenever there’s song’, wrote the poet Rilke in the 1920s. What gives the Orpheus myth such a lasting power – it was the object of a whole ancient religion, and a source of inspiration for artists right up to the present day – is its insistence on the miraculous power of art to conquer objective reality, even to cross the border between life and death, however momentarily. His head remains intact, and continues to sing as it floats off on the waters. As he nears the exit from the Underworld, he turns to see Eurydice behind him, and she is trapped forever.ĭevastated by this final separation and unable to return to the Underworld himself, Orpheus plays a mourning song on his lyre and is torn to pieces by a band of Maenads (female followers of the god Dionysus). But, unable to hear Eurydice’s footsteps, he starts to fear that Hades has fooled him. Overjoyed at being set this simple task, Orpheus thanks the gods and begins his ascent. He beguiles them, too, with his song, and Hades tells Orpheus that he can take Euridyce back with him, under one condition: she must follow behind him as they emerge from the Underworld, and he must not turn to look at her. His musical gifts charm Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the gates, and allow him finally to reach the god of the Underworld, Hades, and his wife, Persephone. Filled with grief, Orpheus cannot accept the loss of his adored bride, and he decides to journey to the Underworld to bring her back.

Hades orpheus and eurydice song