La morte d'Orfeo (The Death of Orpheus) is an opera in five acts by the Italian composer Stefano Landi. Dedicated to Alessandro Mattei, familiaris of Pope Paul V, it may have been first performed in Rome in 1619.[1] The work is styled a tragicomedia pastorale (pastoral tragicomedy). The libretto, which may be by the composer himself, is in part inspired by La favola d'Orfeo (1484) by Angelo Poliziano. Unlike Monteverdi's L'Orfeo and the earliest Florentine operas on the subject (Euridice by Peri and Caccini), Landi's opera contains comic elements and deals with a different episode from the life of the mythical singer.
| Role | Voice type |
|---|---|
| Orfeo (Orpheus) | tenor |
| Teti (Thetis) | alto castrato (en travesti) |
| Fato (Destiny) | bass |
| L'Ebro | bass |
| Aurora | alto castrato (en travesti) |
| Mercurio (Mercury) | tenor |
| Apollo | tenor |
| Bacco (Dionysus) | alto castrato |
| Nisa | soprano castrato (en travesti) |
| Ireno | tenor |
| Lincastro | alto castrato |
| Furore (Wrath) | bass |
| Calliope | alto castrato (en travesti) |
| Fileno | tenor |
| Caronte (Charon) | bass |
| Euridice (Eurydice) | soprano castrato (en travesti) |
| Giove (Jupiter) | bass |
| Fosforo | alto castrato |
| Three Euretti[2] | soprano castratos/2 altos castratos |
After Orpheus has failed to save his wife Eurydice from the underworld, he renounces wine and the love of women. This offends the god Bacchus who urges his female followers, the Maenads, to kill Orpheus. The enraged Maenads tear him apart. The gods want the dead Orpheus to join them on Olympus but Orpheus wants to be reunited with Eurydice in Hades. Only after the god Mercury shows him that, having drunk the waters of Lethe, Eurydice no longer remembers her husband, does Orpheus agree to ascend to Olympus.
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