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Why did the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice influence the earliest operas?

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Members of the Dnepropetrovsk State Opera and Ballet Theatre perform Il Trovatore, with a woman in tattered costume singing dramatically at center stage and other actors in period dress. — opera Performance of Giuseppe Verdi's *Il trovatore*, 2011.

The legend of Orpheus was central to the birth of opera because it perfectly embodied the Renaissance and Neoplatonic belief in the "magical" power of music to move the soul and bridge the earthly world with the cosmos.1

As the musician of antiquity who used his voice and lyre to tame animals and influence the gods, Orpheus served as the ideal protagonist for early opera creators. These artists, associated with the Camerata, sought to revive the transformative power of ancient Greek drama. By focusing on Orphic singing, they aimed to use accompanied vocal expression to imitate human emotions and transmit an inner reality that could deeply affect listeners.1

This thematic choice was reinforced by the literary status of the Orpheus myth in Florence, where it had already been established as a classic subject for secular drama. Consequently, early works like Jacopo Peri’s L’Euridice and Claudio Monteverdi’s La favola d’Orfeo were foundational in establishing the dramatic vocal style that defined the genre.123