Loading credits…
In the pastoral setting, Acis and Galatea fall in love. The giant Polyphemus, jealous of Galatea, kills Acis; Galatea uses her divine power to transform Acis into a fountain, and the chorus celebrates his immortality.
Zephyrus is jealous of Hyacinth’s closeness to Apollo. Apollo visits King Oebalus and falls in love with the king’s daughter Melia. While the group is at play, Apollo’s discus strikes Hyacinth, fatally wounding him. Zephyrus is responsible, and he tries to court Melia while Apollo is absent. Before dying, Hyacinth reveals the truth. Apollo turns Zephyrus into a wind; flowers rise from Hyacinth’s grave, and Apollo and Melia become engaged.
A tragédie en musique with prologue, based on the legend of Ariadne as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Eight-scene opera by Alexander Goehr setting most of Ottavio Rinuccini’s libretto for Monteverdi’s lost L’Arianna, based on the classical story of Ariadne and Theseus. Goehr preserves Monteverdi’s surviving lament and intersperses it with choral episodes.
A tragédie en musique based on the myth of Byblis as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Aurora, who loves Cephalus, prophesies that he will kill Procris and drives him away from her. Later, as Cephalus hunts, Procris hides to listen to him; mistaking her sigh for an animal, he shoots and mortally wounds her. Cupid revives Procris and grants the couple immortality.
Céphale and Procris love each other, but the dawn goddess Aurora and Thracian prince Borée complicate their marriage plans. Aurora’s spell briefly makes Procris believe Céphale has been unfaithful, then Aurora reverses it; Procris is accidentally struck by Céphale’s arrow while intervening in his fight with Borée and dies.
After Apollo kills Python, he challenges Cupid to an archery contest. Cupid retaliates by making Apollo fall in love with the nymph Daphne. Daphne flees Apollo and transforms into a laurel tree. Apollo makes a crown from its leaves, which become a symbol of poetry, music, and freedom.
Daphne, devoted to nature, rejects the love of her childhood friend Leukippos and of a mysterious herdsman, who is Apollo. At a Dionysian festival, Apollo reveals Leukippos’s disguise and kills him with an arrow. Grieving Daphne, Apollo asks Zeus to transform her into a tree, and she rejoices in her union with nature.
Sculptor Pygmalion loves his statue Galathée and refuses to sell it to patron Mydas. He asks Venus to bring the statue to life, but Galathée proves independent and favors Pygmalion’s servant Ganymed. She also accepts jewelry from Mydas. After Pygmalion catches her with another man, he asks Venus to turn her back into stone; the jewelry is petrified as well, and the statue is sold to Mydas.
Hercules returns from war with Princess Iole, provoking his wife Dejanira’s jealousy. Believing a blood-soaked cloak will restore his fidelity, she sends it to him; the poison kills Hercules, and Dejanira descends into madness. Iole pities her, while Hercules is taken to Olympus and his son Hyllus is promised to Iole.
At their wedding in Thrace, Orfeo and Euridice celebrate their love. A messenger arrives with news that Euridice has died from a snakebite. Orfeo descends to the Underworld and persuades Pluto to release her, on the condition that he not look back as they return. Doubt overcomes Orfeo and he turns to look; Euridice vanishes. In the ending used in Monteverdi’s 1609 score, Apollo descends and invites Orfeo to join him in the heavens, where he may see Euridice among the stars. The original 1607 libretto instead ends with Bacchantes threatening Orfeo, leaving his fate uncertain.
At the wedding celebration of Margherita de’ Medici and Odoardo Farnese, Hymen presents the story of Chloris and Zephyrus. The gods arrange their union, but Cupid’s jealousy and Pan’s false accusation separate them, bringing storms to Tuscany. The truth is restored, spring returns, and Zephyrus transforms Chloris into Flora, goddess of flowers; Apollo celebrates Florence in the finale.
For a ducal wedding, a prologue celebrates Apollo and predicts prosperity. The three acts recount Jupiter rewarding Baucis and Philemon, Aristaeus atoning for pursuing Eurydice and marrying Cydippe, and a shortened reworking of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
In Rome in 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius, Brutus and Collatinus discuss their wives’ fidelity. Tarquinius becomes infatuated with Collatinus’s wife Lucrezia, enters her home and rapes her. The following day she asks Collatinus to avenge her and takes her life. Brutus leads a rebellion that overthrows the monarchy.
Ancient stories of transformation unfold through mime, dance, speech, and illusion. Adapted from Ovid, the piece connects mythic violence and survival with the continual changes of contemporary life.
The opera draws on Ovid’s story of Myrrha and her father Cinyras, mediated through a play by Vittorio Alfieri. The entry gives no specific plot events.
A three-act tragedy about the Greek mythological queen Niobe, punished by the gods for her pride, with a libretto by Luigi Orlandi after Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
A tragédie en musique based on the story of Philomela as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Polifemo desires Galatea, who loves the mortal Aci. He kills Aci, but the gods restore him as a river deity. Meanwhile, Calipso helps Ulisse escape Polifemo’s control; Ulisse blinds the sleeping cyclops. Polifemo wanders in rage while Aci, Galatea, and Ulisse celebrate.
Semele, daughter of Cadmus, loves Jupiter rather than her intended husband Athamas. Jupiter carries her away to a mountain palace, where she enjoys their life together but grows dissatisfied with being mortal. Juno disguises herself as Semele’s sister and persuades her to demand that Jupiter appear in his divine form. Bound by his oath, Jupiter grants her wish; his thunderbolts consume her. Apollo announces that her unborn child will be Bacchus, and Athamas accepts Ino as his bride.
Semele is about to marry Athamas against her will when Jupiter carries her away. Juno discovers the lovers’ palace and plots against Semele. Disguised as Ino, she persuades Semele that she can become immortal by insisting that Jupiter appear in his divine form. Jupiter warns her but fulfills his oath; his fire and lightning destroy her. Ino marries Athamas, and Apollo foretells that Semele’s unborn child, Bacchus, will rise from her ashes.
Venus chooses Adonis as king of Cyprus, angering Mars and the secretly jealous princess Cidippe, who loves Adonis. Mars and Cidippe arrange revenge, but Adonis defeats the monster sent against him. Diana restores the beast, which kills Adonis; Cidippe dies by suicide as Venus and the people mourn.
In the pastoral setting, Acis and Galatea fall in love. The giant Polyphemus, jealous of Galatea, kills Acis; Galatea uses her divine power to transform Acis into a fountain, and the chorus celebrates his immortality.
Zephyrus is jealous of Hyacinth’s closeness to Apollo. Apollo visits King Oebalus and falls in love with the king’s daughter Melia. While the group is at play, Apollo’s discus strikes Hyacinth, fatally wounding him. Zephyrus is responsible, and he tries to court Melia while Apollo is absent. Before dying, Hyacinth reveals the truth. Apollo turns Zephyrus into a wind; flowers rise from Hyacinth’s grave, and Apollo and Melia become engaged.
A tragédie en musique with prologue, based on the legend of Ariadne as recounted in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Eight-scene opera by Alexander Goehr setting most of Ottavio Rinuccini’s libretto for Monteverdi’s lost L’Arianna, based on the classical story of Ariadne and Theseus. Goehr preserves Monteverdi’s surviving lament and intersperses it with choral episodes.
A tragédie en musique based on the myth of Byblis as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Aurora, who loves Cephalus, prophesies that he will kill Procris and drives him away from her. Later, as Cephalus hunts, Procris hides to listen to him; mistaking her sigh for an animal, he shoots and mortally wounds her. Cupid revives Procris and grants the couple immortality.
Céphale and Procris love each other, but the dawn goddess Aurora and Thracian prince Borée complicate their marriage plans. Aurora’s spell briefly makes Procris believe Céphale has been unfaithful, then Aurora reverses it; Procris is accidentally struck by Céphale’s arrow while intervening in his fight with Borée and dies.
After Apollo kills Python, he challenges Cupid to an archery contest. Cupid retaliates by making Apollo fall in love with the nymph Daphne. Daphne flees Apollo and transforms into a laurel tree. Apollo makes a crown from its leaves, which become a symbol of poetry, music, and freedom.
Daphne, devoted to nature, rejects the love of her childhood friend Leukippos and of a mysterious herdsman, who is Apollo. At a Dionysian festival, Apollo reveals Leukippos’s disguise and kills him with an arrow. Grieving Daphne, Apollo asks Zeus to transform her into a tree, and she rejoices in her union with nature.
Sculptor Pygmalion loves his statue Galathée and refuses to sell it to patron Mydas. He asks Venus to bring the statue to life, but Galathée proves independent and favors Pygmalion’s servant Ganymed. She also accepts jewelry from Mydas. After Pygmalion catches her with another man, he asks Venus to turn her back into stone; the jewelry is petrified as well, and the statue is sold to Mydas.
Hercules returns from war with Princess Iole, provoking his wife Dejanira’s jealousy. Believing a blood-soaked cloak will restore his fidelity, she sends it to him; the poison kills Hercules, and Dejanira descends into madness. Iole pities her, while Hercules is taken to Olympus and his son Hyllus is promised to Iole.
At their wedding in Thrace, Orfeo and Euridice celebrate their love. A messenger arrives with news that Euridice has died from a snakebite. Orfeo descends to the Underworld and persuades Pluto to release her, on the condition that he not look back as they return. Doubt overcomes Orfeo and he turns to look; Euridice vanishes. In the ending used in Monteverdi’s 1609 score, Apollo descends and invites Orfeo to join him in the heavens, where he may see Euridice among the stars. The original 1607 libretto instead ends with Bacchantes threatening Orfeo, leaving his fate uncertain.
At the wedding celebration of Margherita de’ Medici and Odoardo Farnese, Hymen presents the story of Chloris and Zephyrus. The gods arrange their union, but Cupid’s jealousy and Pan’s false accusation separate them, bringing storms to Tuscany. The truth is restored, spring returns, and Zephyrus transforms Chloris into Flora, goddess of flowers; Apollo celebrates Florence in the finale.
For a ducal wedding, a prologue celebrates Apollo and predicts prosperity. The three acts recount Jupiter rewarding Baucis and Philemon, Aristaeus atoning for pursuing Eurydice and marrying Cydippe, and a shortened reworking of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.
In Rome in 509 BC, Sextus Tarquinius, Brutus and Collatinus discuss their wives’ fidelity. Tarquinius becomes infatuated with Collatinus’s wife Lucrezia, enters her home and rapes her. The following day she asks Collatinus to avenge her and takes her life. Brutus leads a rebellion that overthrows the monarchy.
Ancient stories of transformation unfold through mime, dance, speech, and illusion. Adapted from Ovid, the piece connects mythic violence and survival with the continual changes of contemporary life.
The opera draws on Ovid’s story of Myrrha and her father Cinyras, mediated through a play by Vittorio Alfieri. The entry gives no specific plot events.
A three-act tragedy about the Greek mythological queen Niobe, punished by the gods for her pride, with a libretto by Luigi Orlandi after Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
A tragédie en musique based on the story of Philomela as told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Polifemo desires Galatea, who loves the mortal Aci. He kills Aci, but the gods restore him as a river deity. Meanwhile, Calipso helps Ulisse escape Polifemo’s control; Ulisse blinds the sleeping cyclops. Polifemo wanders in rage while Aci, Galatea, and Ulisse celebrate.
Semele, daughter of Cadmus, loves Jupiter rather than her intended husband Athamas. Jupiter carries her away to a mountain palace, where she enjoys their life together but grows dissatisfied with being mortal. Juno disguises herself as Semele’s sister and persuades her to demand that Jupiter appear in his divine form. Bound by his oath, Jupiter grants her wish; his thunderbolts consume her. Apollo announces that her unborn child will be Bacchus, and Athamas accepts Ino as his bride.
Semele is about to marry Athamas against her will when Jupiter carries her away. Juno discovers the lovers’ palace and plots against Semele. Disguised as Ino, she persuades Semele that she can become immortal by insisting that Jupiter appear in his divine form. Jupiter warns her but fulfills his oath; his fire and lightning destroy her. Ino marries Athamas, and Apollo foretells that Semele’s unborn child, Bacchus, will rise from her ashes.
Venus chooses Adonis as king of Cyprus, angering Mars and the secretly jealous princess Cidippe, who loves Adonis. Mars and Cidippe arrange revenge, but Adonis defeats the monster sent against him. Diana restores the beast, which kills Adonis; Cidippe dies by suicide as Venus and the people mourn.