“It’s hard to say who wrote the very first opera, but there’s little doubt about the first, truly great one — it’s Monteverdi’s 1607 masterpiece, L’Orfeo.” (National Public Radio)

As one of the earliest examples of the form, and certainly the earliest that still has a place in the present repertoire 400 years later, L’Orfeo sets to music the famous myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, whose long-awaited wedding night ends in tragedy when Eurydice is bitten by a poisonous snake and Orfeo storms the gates of hell to rescue her. Jeannette Sorrell leads a company of 40 performers in this semi-staged production with period dancers. Performed in Italian with English supertitles.