It’s been a while since I’ve read had the pleasure of reading one of my favorite blogs. Life and time and all that jazz, but I’d really encourage anyone if they had a moment to take the opportunity to browse through it, listen to some great classical music pieces and take in the prose accompanying it.
For today’s piece to accompany my memoir (see article below), I have chosen the overture to Claudio Monteverdi’s opera, Orfeo. Monteverdi is usually given credit for having invented the dramatical musical work we now call opera, and Orfeo has the distinction of being the first.
The subject comes from the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridyce. Orpheus, the son of Apollo and Calliope, had a beautiful voice, wrote touching lyrics and could accompany himself on the lyre. He fell in love with Euridyce, a damsel so beautiful that she caught the attention of Pluto, god of the underworld. In some versions, she is bitten by a snake and dies. In others, the god kidnaps Euridyce. In any case, Orpheus descends into the underworld to get her back. He pleaded his case by singing a song so moving that the gods allowed him to take Euridyce back to the…
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