Dafne
Music by Jacopo Peri · libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini · premiered 1597
Dafne (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdaf.ne], Italian for "Daphne") is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera.
The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, based on an earlier intermedio created in 1589, "Combattimento di Apollo col serpente Pitone" ("the battle between Apollo and Python"), and set to music by Luca Marenzio, survives complete. The opera is considered to be the first "modern music drama." The mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragments are by Jacopo Corsi. Dafne was first performed during Carnival of 1598 (1597 old style) at the Palazzo Corsi.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Dafne", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Jacopo Peri (Italian: [ˈja.ko.po ˈpɛ.ri]; 20 August 1561 – 12 August 1633) was an Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. He wrote what is considered the first opera, the mostly lost Dafne (c. 1597), and also the earliest extant opera, Euridice (1600). He is sometimes known by the byname lo Zazzerino (lit. 'the blond one').
Text from the Wikipedia article "Jacopo Peri", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Jacopo Peri
- Euridice (1600)