Abstract
Vergil and Ovid, the Latin authors most widely read during the Baroque Age, presented the legend of Orpheus as ending tragically: the singer lost Eurydice forever and then endured a horrible death at the hands of the Maenads. While this version of the story was widely known throughout the Baroque Age, most operas of that period contained an altered version of the legend with a happy ending (lieto fine). Orpheus was presented as exalted into the heavens, reunited with Eurydice on earth, or at least consoled for his sufferings by the god Apollo. An examination of Poliziano’sOrfeo (1480), Jacopo Peri’sEuridice (1600), Claudio Monteverdi’sLa favola di Orfeo (1607), Luigi Rossi’sOrfeo (1647), and Christoph Willibald Gluck’sOrfeo ed Euridice (1762) suggests that many different reasons—artistic, musical, social, and sometimes even personal—explain why Baroque composers so frequently changed the ending of this myth. Surveying those reasons is important because it helps to clarify the relationship between Baroque opera and Italian pastoral poetry. Additionally, such an analysis provides insight into the Baroque approach to the classical tradition as a whole.
Published Version
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