Mantua, Italy
Italy this week celebrated the 400th birthday of its great theatrical invention, the opera, with a staging of Orfeo, by Monteverdi, first staged in Mantua in 1607. While Orfeo wasnt the first or even the second operathose distinctions belong to Dafne and Eurydice, both by Jacopo Periit was the first to be adopted by performers elsewhere. Hollywood managed to one-up Italy, though: Long Beach Opera in Los Angeles held a 400th anniversary celebration for opera back in 2000, with a performance of Peris Eurydice. The score to Dafne is lost.
