Euridice (also Erudice or Eurydice), an opera…

Euridice (also Erudice or Eurydice), an opera by Jacopo Peri, with additional music by Giulio Caccini, has a libretto written by Ottavio Rinuccini, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses.

First performed in Florence on October 6, 1600, in the Palazzo Pitti, it has been created for the marriage of Henry IV and Maria de Medici.

This is considered by some to be the second work of modern opera, and the first such musical drama to survive to the present day.

(The first, Dafne, had been written by the same authors in 1597.)

Peri himself sings the title role, and many of the other parts are played by members of Caccini's entourage, including his daughter Francesca Caccini.

Caccini had actually written an entire opera of Euridice to the same libretto, and managed to have it published before Peri's.

Caccini's, however, will not performed until 1602, and will never be repeated, presumably because of the success of Peri's version.

Euridice contains one of the first examples of recitative.

Peri carefully paces the voice and accompaniment in order to highlight the tension and release in the text.

The rhythms and melodic inflections in the vocal line imitate speech.

In addition, impassioned exclamations are set with unprepared dissonances and unexpected movements in the bass.