Luigi Rossi’s “Orpheus” in Opera Anthologies of Early 17th Century.
Background. The official history of opera starts from the ancient myth about Orpheus. The musical interpretations of the myth have been extensively covered in re-search in all possible aspects. However, starting from 1880s, the new developments in dealing with ancient music and the efforts of contemporary musicians who perform it do not allow to abandon this topic, drawing attention back to what seems to have been said already, discovering new nuances of sound and emphases of meaning. Objective.This article was inspired by Luigi Rossi’s opera “Orpheus” (1647). Al-though this opera has established its place in the European repertoires (it was first per-formed in 1982, at La Scala theater in Milan, and continued to be performed in various European countries, as well as in the U.S.), actually it remains terra incognita both for genera listeners and for musicians. The author of this work uses classical methodsof analysis of historical and theoretical musicology. Results.The manuscript of “Orpheus” was discovered by R. Rolland only in 1888, 240 years after its first performance, in Chigi library in Rome. This discovery triggered thorough research on determining the authorship of the manuscript, which for a long time (up to 20 th century) was attributed to many persons: Monteverdi, abbot Perrin, Au-relio Aureli, Gioseffo Zarlino, Jacopo Peri, or unknown composers. The process of forgetting the name of Luigi Rossi started in mid-18 th century and was related to the renovations of opera and vocal stage art in general. The names of the composer and of his pieces disappear from musical dictionaries (up to 1887), musical chronicles, and repertoires. However, French manuscripts of early 18 th century praise Luigi Rossi as the best Italian composer. In the eyes of French connoisseurs of art, he became not only the embodiment of the serious Italian music but also the composer who took a lot of efforts to improve the French singing. Writing an opera based on a famous story, L. Rossi placed himself into the great tradition, engaging into a dialogue with his great predecessors, such drama per musica as “Euridice” by J. Peri (1600) and “Euridice” by G. Caccini (1602), both based on the lyrics by O. Rinuccini; “Favola in musica L’Orfeo” by C. Monteverdi (1607), based on the lyrics by A. Striggio; a tragicommedia pastorale “La morte d’Orfeo” by Stefano Landi (1618). The lyrics of all these operas developed the ideas of the play “The Tale of Orpheus” by Angelo Poliziano (1471). This piece, which united the old form of sacral dramas and mysteries on Biblical topics (rappresentazione sacre) with a new content, the praise of the joys of life, marked the advent of a new type of Eu-ropean drama. Even the first musical interpretations of the myth of Orpheus in the pieces by J. Peri and G. Caccini mark the flexibility of the lyrics in the musical practice: the lyrics turned out to be capable, depending on the intentions of a composer and the type of scenic performance, to be adjusted and modified. Tracing the further interpretations of this subject even during the early 17 th century, we can notice significant differences from the source (1471), which over time became more and more significant. “The recitative operas” by J. Peri and G. Caccini are the examples of harmony and delicateness: lyri-cal intimateness of expression, free from melodramatics, prevails even in the narrative about the death of Eurydice. “Orpheus” by C. Monteverdi continues the same tendency. The elaborateness of the structure (5 acts instead of 5 scenes, the scale of each act, the duration of the performance, contrary to small-scale madrigals) of favola in musica by C. Monteverdi was a completely new type of musical and scenic interpretation of the subject. The main point here is the capability of music to implement the idea of drama on its own. In “The Death of Orpheus,” the author of libretto and music S. Landi radically transforms the famous story, enhancing the comic and burlesque aspect. In “Orpheus” by L. Rossi, the famous storyline gains on new meanings, the main of which is the test of marital fidelity. The scale of the structure (6 hours of music and 25 scenes in the origi-nal version), the over-complicated storyline, the wordy libretto, the amount of dancing episodes coexisting with concert-type solo arias, are the unique features that make this opera different from all its predecessors. Conclusions.The counterpoint of intimate lyricism and fate, of true drama and comical grotesque brings into “Orpheus” by L. Rossi the interplay of light and darkness, the mix of higher and lower, of serious and frivolous, which are all characteristics of the baroque drama. Having engaged himself into a creative competition on an ancient topic with his older contemporaries, Rossi dealt with this competition with dignity. On the one hand, he engages into a dialogue with the already-existing tradition; on the other hand, he refreshes this tradition, inspiring his followers to discover new potential mean-ings in the story. In particular, the motive of doubt becomes one of the crucial themes in “Orpheus” by Antonio Sartorio (1672). Simultaneity, which has been skillfully imple-mented on all levels of dramaturgy, provides Rossi’s opera with necessary dynamics of the development of the plot, though it is complicated by side plots. The authors have anticipated the principles of the forthcoming Mozart’s “drama giocoso” and the musical theatre of 20 th century. It seems only natural that “Orpheus” by L. Rossi goes through another renaissance in the contemporary theater, which is a sign of open-mindedness towards any kind of directing.