L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643)

In listening lab on Thursday we watched a video of a performance of the opera L'orfeo by Monteverdi.  This opera is one of the earliest ever written.  It sets itself apart from many other operas of its day by breaking up the monotony of monody (I've been wanting to say that for awhile now!) with pieces for chorus and instrumental interludes.  In class we saw all of act I, plus snippets of acts II, III, and I think even IV.  The performance was very interesting to me and at times a little distracting.  Seemingly out of nowhere, people would run across the stage doing flips and acrobatics, and whole groups of people would mime laughing or kissing or other extreme gestures.  It was a little bit like a vaudeville act or something.  Despite all of those distractions, I was still enjoying the opera, and especially liked the variety of solo pieces, chorus numbers, and instrumental interludes.  The instrumentation was very interesting to me, as all of the musicians used period style instruments.  The quality of the performance seemed top-notch to me, and the singers were all very good (except maybe Euridice, who I felt was weak).  Some of the cinematography was strange, especially the ultra close-up shots of Orfeo and Euridice (like having a staring match with the tv).  I think the fact that this opera still gets performed today is amazing, and shows the genius of Monteverdi.  He truly set the standard of how to do opera the right way.