L’Euridice

opera by Peri

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June 26, 2026

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L'Euridice is an opera by Jacopo Peri, with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. It premiered in Florence in 1600 and is considered one of the earliest operas for which complete music still exists. The opera dramatizes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and was performed as part of the wedding festivities for Maria de' Medici and Henry IV of France.12

Peri's work, along with other early operas, was influenced by the humanist movement in Florence, which sought to revive ancient Greek dramatic traditions. A key innovation was the development of recitative, a style of singing that was "more than speech but less than song," allowing for a more direct and expressive delivery of the text. L'Euridice served as a significant influence on later composers, including Claudio Monteverdi, whose opera L'Orfeo (1607) built upon Peri's musical and dramatic concepts.23

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Jacopo Peri
…which complete music still exists, L’Euridice (1600); some of the music used in the first performance of L’Euridice was composed by Peri’s rival at court, Giulio Caccini. The impetus for this new style of dramatic singing, quite different from the traditional Renaissance texture of complex polyphony, was cultivated in Peri’s…
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…which complete music still exists, L’Euridice (1600); some of the music used in the first performance of L’Euridice was composed by Peri’s rival at court, Giulio Caccini. The impetus for this new style of dramatic singing, quite different from the traditional Renaissance texture of complex polyphony, was cultivated in Peri’s…
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opera
Civic humanism
…preface to his second opera, L’Euridice—was as much an expression of humanist ideas about the relationship between words and music as it was emblematic of the new art form.
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…preface to his second opera, L’Euridice—was as much an expression of humanist ideas about the relationship between words and music as it was emblematic of the new art form.
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Francesca Caccini
…in the 1600 production of L’Euridice, an opera that included contributions by her father, sung by his students (most of the music was composed by Jacopo Peri). In the same year, she likely also sang in her father’s Il rapimento di Cefalo (“The Abduction of Cephalus”), composed to a libretto…
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…in the 1600 production of L’Euridice, an opera that included contributions by her father, sung by his students (most of the music was composed by Jacopo Peri). In the same year, she likely also sang in her father’s Il rapimento di Cefalo (“The Abduction of Cephalus”), composed to a libretto…
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