Operas based on the Orphean myths, and especially the story of Orpheus' journey to the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice, were amongst the earliest examples of the art form and continue to be written into the 21st century. Orpheus, the Greek hero whose songs could charm both gods and wild beasts and coax the trees and rocks into dance, has achieved an emblematic status as a metaphor for the power of music.

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  • Operas based on the Orphean myths, and especially the story of Orpheus' journey to the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice, were amongst the earliest examples of the art form and continue to be written into the 21st century. Orpheus, the Greek hero whose songs could charm both gods and wild beasts and coax the trees and rocks into dance, has achieved an emblematic status as a metaphor for the power of music. The following is an annotated list of operas (and works in related genres) based on his myth. The works are listed with their composers and arranged by date of first performance. In cases where the opera was never performed, the approximate date of composition is given. 1600 - Jacopo Peri – Euridice, the first genuine opera whose music survives to this day. 1602 - Giulio Caccini – Euridice 1607 - Claudio Monteverdi – Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, widely regarded as the first operatic masterwork. 1616 - Domenico Belli - Orfeo dolente, a set of intermedi presented between the acts of Tasso's Aminta 1619 - Stefano Landi – La morte d'Orfeo 1647 - Luigi Rossi – Orfeo, one of the first operas to be performed in France. Rossi's own wife died while he was composing the score. 1654 - Carlo d'Aquino – Orfeo 1659 - Johann Jakob Löwe von Eisenach – Orpheus von Thracien 1672 - Antonio Sartorio – Orfeo 1673 - Matthew Locke - Orpheus and Euridice, a masque presented between the acts of Elkanah Settle's The Empress of Morocco 1676 - Giuseppe di Dia – Orfeo 1677 - Francesco della Torre – Orfeo 1683 - Johann Philipp Krieger – Orpheus und Eurydice 1683 - Antonio Draghi – La lira d' Orfeo c 1685 - Marc-Antoine Charpentier – La descente d'Orphée aux enfers 1689 - Bernardo Sabadini – Orfeo 1690 - Louis Lully – Orphée 1698 - Reinhard Keiser – Die sterbende Eurydice oder Orpheus 1699 - André Campra – Orfeo nell'inferni 1701 - John Weldon – Orpheus and Euridice 1715 - Johann Joseph Fux – Orfeo ed Euridice 1726 - Georg Philipp Telemann – Orpheus 1740 - John Frederick Lampe – Orpheus and Eurydice c. 1740 - Jean-Philippe Rameau – (unfinished project) 1749 - Giovanni Alberto Ristori – I lamenti d'Orfeo 1750 - Georg Christoph Wagenseil – Euridice 1752 - Carl Heinrich Graun – Orfeo 1762 - Christoph Willibald Gluck – Orfeo ed Euridice (French version, Orphée et Euridice, 1774) 1767 - François Hippolyte Barthélemon – The Burletta of Orpheus 1775 - Antonio Tozzi – Orfeo ed Euridice 1776 - Ferdinando Bertoni – Orfeo ed Euridice (to the same libretto as Gluck's more famous work) 1781 - Luigi Torelli – Orfeo 1785 - Friedrich Benda – Orpheus 1786 - Johann Gottlieb Naumann – Orpheus og Eurydice 1788 - Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Orpheus der Zweyte 1788 - Johann Friedrich Reichardt – Orpheus 1789 - Vittorio Trento – Orfeo negli Elisi 1791 - Joseph Haydn – L'anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice 1791 - Ferdinando Paer – Orphée et Euridice 1792 - Peter Winter – Orpheus und Euridice 1793 - Prosper-Didier Deshayes – Le petit Orphée (parody of Gluck's opera) 1796 - Luigi Lamberti – Orfeo 1796 - Francesco Morolin – Orfeo ed Euridice c.1796, before 1797 - Antoine Dauvergne – Orphée (not performed) 1798 - Gottlob Bachmann – Der Tod des Orpheus/Orpheus und Euridice 1802 - Carl Conrad Cannabich – Orpheus 1807 - Friedrich August Kanne – Orpheus 1813 - Ferdinand Kauer – Orpheus und Euridice, oder So geht es im Olympus zu 1814 - Marchese Francesco Sampieri – Orfeo (cantata?) 1858 - Jacques Offenbach - Orphée aux enfers 1860 - Gustav Michaelis – Orpheus auf der Oberwelt 1867 - Karl Ferdinand Konradin – Orpheus im Dorfe (operetta) 1907 - Fernando de Azevedo e Silva – A morte de Orfeu 1907–16 - Claude Debussy – (unfinished project) 1913 - Jean Roger-Ducasse – Orphée, premiered at the Opéra Garnier in a production mounted by Ida Rubinstein. 1925 - Gian Francesco Malipiero – L'Orfeide, cycle in three parts: I. La morte delle maschere, II. Sette canzoni, III. Orfeo 1925 - Darius Milhaud – Les malheurs d'Orphée, chamber opera with a libretto by Armand Lunel 1926 - Ernst Krenek – Orpheus und Eurydike 1932 - Alfredo Casella – La favola d'Orfeo, chamber opera after Poliziano's L'Orfeo 1956 - Tom Jobim,Vinícius de Moraes – Orfeo da Conceição (translated to cinema as Black Orpheus) 1978 - Hans Werner Henze – Orpheus (Viennese version 1986) 1986 - Harrison Birtwistle – The Mask of Orpheus 1993 - Philip Glass – Orphée, chamber opera with a libretto adapted by the composer from Jean Cocteau's film of the same name 2005 - Ricky Ian Gordon – Orpheus and Euridice, an hour-long song cycle in two acts
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  • 15 August
  • Frederick W. Sternfeld
  • Orpheus
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  • Operas based on the Orphean myths, and especially the story of Orpheus' journey to the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice, were amongst the earliest examples of the art form and continue to be written into the 21st century. Orpheus, the Greek hero whose songs could charm both gods and wild beasts and coax the trees and rocks into dance, has achieved an emblematic status as a metaphor for the power of music.
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  • List of Orphean operas
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