Jacopo Peri: Euridice

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Jacopo Peri's Euridice was written for the marriage festivities in Florence in 1600 of Marie de' Medici and Henri IV of France, Peri used as his text a poem by Ottavio Rinuccini that tells the familiar tale of Orpheus and his bride. To improve the story's suitability for a marriage celebration, in this version the gods allow the lovers to live happily ever after. The earliest opera for which the music has survived, Euridice displayed a new musically enhanced and heightened form of speech that allowed a solo voice to move the story forward and respond to its dramatic needs. But there are two problems. Typically for its time, Euridice is entirely in the form of declamatory recitatives accompanied by basso continuo, with stylized characters, no true arias, and little sustained melody, and thus it becomes tedious to modern ears. Also, while the singers are excellent, the orchestra is dreary and the production as a whole lacks energy and vitality. The set will be valuable to those interested in the history of opera, less so to others. --Alex Morin

Jacopo Peri: Euridice, Music, Luca Ferracin, Jacopo Peri, Bianca Simone, Marisa Pugina, Sylva Pozzer, Alessandro Carmignani, Luca Dordolo, Mirko Guadagnini, Classical, Italian Baroque Opera, Opera, Opera / Operetta / Oratorio

Peri - Euridice / Banditelli · Fagotto · Cecchetti · Zambon · Foresti · Bertini · Benvenuti · Zanasi · Ensemble Arpeggio · de Caro
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The first complete opera to have survived in a fine recording

Complete opera at mid-price

Peri - Euridice / Banditelli · Fagotto · Cecchetti · Zambon · Foresti · Bertini · Benvenuti · Zanasi · Ensemble Arpeggio · de Caro
Sergio Foresti , Rossana Bertini , Monica Benvenuti , Furio Zanasi , and Paolo Da Col
Manufacturer: Arts Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000005AQ4
Release Date: 1996-06-18

Tracks:

Prologue: Io, Che D'alti Sospir Vaga E Di Pianti - Gloria Banditelli
Scene I: Ninfe, Ch'i Bein Crin D'oro - Sergio Foresti/Mario Cecchetti
Scene I: Vaghe Ninfre Amorose - Monica Benvenuti
Scene I: Donne, Ch'a' Miei Diletti - Gloria Banditelli
Scene I: Credi, Ninfa Gentile - Mario Cecchetti
Scene I: In Mille Guise E Mille - Gloria Banditelli
Scene I: Al Canto, Al Ballo All'ombra, Al Prato Adorno - Monica Benvenuti/Rossana Bertini/Gloria Banditelli/Giuseppe Zambon/Mario Cecchetti/Paolo Da Col...
Scene II: Antri, Ch'a' Miei Lamenti - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene II: Sia Pur Lodato Il Ciel, Lodato Amore - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene II: Tirsi Viene In Scena Sonando La Presente Zinfonia - Paolo Da Col
Scene II: Deh Come Ogni Bifolco, Ogni Pastore - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene II: Lassa! Che Di Spavento E Di Pietate - Rossana Bertini
Scene II: Per Quel Vago Boschetto - Rossana Bertini
Scene II: Non Piango E Non Sospiro - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene II: Ahi! Mort'invid'e Ria - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene II: Sconsolati Desir, Gioie Fugaci - Mario Cecchetti
Scene II: Cruda Morte, Hai! Pur Potesti - Monica Benvenuti
Scene III: Se Fato Invido E Rio - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene III: Con Frettoloso Passo - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene III: Io Che Pensato Havea Di Starmi Ascoso - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene III: Se De' Boschi I Verdi Onori - Monica Benvenuti/Rossana Bertini/Gloria Banditelli/Giuseppe Zambon/Mario Cecchetti/Paolo Da Col...
Scene III: Poi Che Dal Bel Sereno - Mario Cecchetti

Tracks:

Scene IV: Scorto Da Immortal Guida - Monica Benvenuti
Scene IV: L'oscuro Varc'onde Siam Giunti A Queste - Monica Benvenuti
Scene IV: Funeste Piagge, Ombrosi Orridi Campi - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene IV: Ond'e Cotanto Ardire - Furio Zanasi
Scene IV: Dhe, Se La Bella Diva - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene IV: Dentro L'infernal Porte - Furio Zanasi
Scene IV: O Re, Nel Cui Sembiante - Gloria Banditelli
Scene IV: A Si Soavi Preghi - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene IV: Sovra L'eccelse Stelle - Sergio Foresti
Scene IV: Trionfi Oggi Pieta Ne' Campi Inferni - Furio Zanasi
Scene IV: Poi Che Gl'eterni Imperi - Monica Benvenuti/Rossana Bertini/Gloria Banditelli/Giuseppe Zambon/Mario Cecchetti/Paolo Da Col...
Scene V: Gia Del Bel Carro Ardente - Giuseppe Zambon
Scene V: Voi, Che Si Ratt'il Volo - Mario Cecchetti
Scene V: Quand'al Tempio N'andaste, Io Mi Pensai - Mario Cecchetti
Scene V: Chi Puo Del Cielo Annoverar Le Stelle - Mario Cecchetti
Scene V: Gioite Al Canto Mio, Selve Frondose - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene V: Quella, Quella Son'io Per Cui Piangeste - Gloria Banditelli
Scene V: Modi Or Soavi Or Mesti - Gian Paolo Fagotto
Scene V: Felice Semideo, Ben Degna Prole - Mario Cecchetti
Scene V: Ritornello Strumentale - Ens Arpeggio/Roberto De Caro
Scene V: Biond'arcer, Che D'alto Monte - Gloria Banditelli

Customer Reviews:

The first complete opera to have survived in a fine recording.......2005-11-01

Opera grew out of the court festivals of late sixteenth century Italy. The nobles were quite interested in all the arts and employed skilled painters, sculptors, poets, and musicians. There was also a great deal of interest in reviving all things Greek because they were seen as the ideal model for all things intellectual. Reviving Greek music involved a great deal of conjecture and imagination because only a few fragments of their music survive and it is by no means agreed upon, even to this day, what they actually mean. One of the groups of Florentine intellectuals surrounded a Count Bardi, which he called the Camerata. They wrote letters to each other, so we have some idea of their thoughts about what it was they were trying to do.

They called what they did the "New Music" or the "Second Practice" and music students learn to call this style monody (solo voice with simple accompaniment). It caused quite a furor among those who were proponents of the older style of counterpoint. One of those who opposed Monteverdi was a fellow named Artusi. Every music student reads his articles against those composers with "smoke in their heads". And of course, Artusi always comes out on the wrong side of history and made to look the fool. However, the art of these composers was shocking and their free use of dissonance compared to the rules of Zarlino and the practice of Palestrina, Ockeghem, Josquin, and others is jarring. However, we have a hard time hearing the difference in these musical styles unless you pay close attention and develop some familiarity with what the argument was all about.

Some of these Second Practice composers came to believe that the Greeks sang their plays from beginning to end. This is almost certainly not true, but the point was they believed it. Composers such as Caccini, Peri, and Monteverdi developed a style of solo singing they felt captured this idea and called it the "stile rappresentativo" (the representative style). It is this recitative style that Caccini and Peri used in developing their art. When you listen to Peri's "Euridice" you will notice that most of it is a very expressive version of what we would call recitative - the almost spoken parts between the arias - and that the aria as even Monteverdi developed it a few years later is almost nonexistent. If you understand that they were trying to recapture the Greek storytelling that they believe was a sung style, this makes a great deal of sense.

In fact, this kind of work was not called "opera" until the mid-seventeenth century (opera simply means "work" as in a work of art). Before that term came into general use, the composers referred to their works as musical fables or music dramas. However, our referring to all of it as opera makes sense given the genealogy of the art form.

Peri's "Euridice" is the first surviving opera we have in complete form. His "Dafne" came first, but is now lost. Caccini was a court rival and was working on his own version of "Euridice" and at the first performance there was apparently a mix of the two composer's works. But the nod is given to Peri and Caccini published his own version, but he completed his version later. It is interesting the Monteverdi also did a version of this myth, but called his "Orfeo".

This is a beautiful recording of this work. It is important to know that even though the complete opera in printed form survives, there is a great deal that is not in the score. A great deal of scholarship and artistic sensitivity has to go into recreating a version of this opera that both succeeds musically and has some claim of authenticity to Peri's intentions for performance.

You will also note the vocal style has nothing to do with Verdi or Wagner. This was for a much smaller hall with only a few hundred of the nobility present. And while it was first performed for a wedding festival and did not please those for whom it was written, it began a four hundred year development of an art form that millions adore and consider to be one of mankind's great achievements. I am one of them.

Enjoy! There is a very helpful booklet with these disks to help you understand the history and the libretto is provided in English and Italian.

Complete opera at mid-price.......1999-03-18

As Peri's Dafne of 1598 is largely lost this work of 1600 counts as "the first ever opera" (CD Box). With Gloria Banditelli as Euridice obviously this is a subtantial release for lovers of early opera.

Amazon.com

Jacopo Peri's Euridice was written for the marriage festivities in Florence in 1600 of Marie de' Medici and Henri IV of France, Peri used as his text a poem by Ottavio Rinuccini that tells the familiar tale of Orpheus and his bride. To improve the story's suitability for a marriage celebration, in this version the gods allow the lovers to live happily ever after. The earliest opera for which the music has survived, Euridice displayed a new musically enhanced and heightened form of speech that allowed a solo voice to move the story forward and respond to its dramatic needs. But there are two problems. Typically for its time, Euridice is entirely in the form of declamatory recitatives accompanied by basso continuo, with stylized characters, no true arias, and little sustained melody, and thus it becomes tedious to modern ears. Also, while the singers are excellent, the orchestra is dreary and the production as a whole lacks energy and vitality. The set will be valuable to those interested in the history of opera, less so to others. --Alex Morin

Average customer rating:

A New Statement in Classical Music

Manufacturer: Arts Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Baroque (c.1600-1750) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Italian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Oratorios | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00004TG40
Release Date: 1997-09-16

Tracks:

Con, Op.9 No.3 in F: I. Allegro - Alfredo Bernardini/Paolo Grazzi/Concerto Armonico Budapest
Con, Op.9 No.3 in F: II. Adagio - Alfredo Bernardini/Paolo Grazzi/Concerto Armonico Budapest
Con, Op.9 No.3 in F: III. Allegro - Alfredo Bernardini/Paolo Grazzi/Concerto Armonico Budapest
Sym No.5, Op.67 in c: I. Allegro Con Brio - Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto/Peter Maag
Go To The Devil And Shake Yourself (Arranged As A Rondo) - Pietro Spada
Linda Di Chamounix: Aria: O Luce Di Quest'anima - Mariella Devia/Orch of Eastern Netherlands/Gabriel Bellini
Orfeo: Chi Mai Dell'Erebo - Delores Ziegler/Ambrosia Opr Chor/I Solisti Venti/Claudio Scimone
Euridice: In Mille Guise...Al Canto, All Ballo - Gloria Banditelli/R. Bertini/M. Benvennuti/M. Cecchetti/Ens Arpeggio/Robert De Caro
Pno Con No.6 in B flat: Allegro Con Spirito - Pietro Spada/Orchestra De Camera di Santa Cecelia
Pno Con No.6 in B flat: Largo - Pietro Spada/Orchestra De Camera di Santa Cecelia
Pno Con No.6 in B flat: Rondo (Moderato) - Pietro Spada/Orchestra De Camera di Santa Cecelia
Sym No.1 in D 'The Titan': II. Kraftig Bewegt, Doch Nicht Zu Schnell - Amsterdam PO/Arpad Joo
The Messiah: Hallelujah - Ambrosian Singers/I Solisti Venti/Claudio Scimone