La Dafne

opera by Peri

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June 25, 2026

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La Dafne is an opera by Jacopo Peri, first performed in Florence around 1598. It is considered by many music historians to be the first opera ever composed.12

The opera was a collaborative effort, with Peri composing the music and Ottavio Rinuccini writing the libretto. It dramatized the myth of Daphne and Apollo. While most of the music for La Dafne is now lost, it was a significant experiment in a new style of dramatic singing known as recitative, which aimed to emulate the emotional depth of ancient Greek dramatic productions. This innovation was a key development in the birth of opera as an art form.12

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Jacopo Peri
…was probably the first opera, La Dafne (1598), and also, in collaboration with Rinuccini, the first opera for 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…
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…was probably the first opera, La Dafne (1598), and also, in collaboration with Rinuccini, the first opera for 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…
Read More