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 wasn’t the first or even the second opera—those distinctions belong to Dafne and Eurydice, both by Jacopo Peri—it 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 Peri’s Eurydice. The score to Dafne is lost.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Trump begins East Wing demolition for ballroomspeed read The president’s new construction will cost $250 million
-
US Supreme Court to tackle gun rights for casual drug usersIN THE SPOTLIGHT Justices are preparing to dive back into the choppy waters of the Second Amendment as the White House pushes to penalize recreational narcotic users
-
Appeals court clears Trump’s Portland troop deploymentSpeed Read A divided federal appeals court ruled that President Trump can send the National Guard to Portland
