Orfeo Premieres at Mantua

1607

Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, considered the first great opera and the earliest still regularly performed, premiered at the ducal palace of the Gonzagas in Mantua during carnival. Its combination of madrigal choruses, toccata overture, and expressive recitative established the essential architecture of the operatic form. The work proved that music could carry dramatic narrative with the emotional force of spoken theater.