Landi: La morte d'Orfeo

This edition presents Stefano Landi's earliest opera, La morte d'Orfeo, for the first time in a modern edition. Originally published in 1619, this work enriches our understanding of the evolution of opera during the transition from the early Florentine examples of Peri and Monteverdi to the full flowering of Roman opera as it exists in Landi's more famous later opera, Il Sant'Alessio. The edition is based on the only source for the score, a print in the collection of the British Library. This volume includes the full text and English translation, as well as a discussion of Landi's unique solutions to the subtle art of balancing text and music to enhance the unfolding drama.

Early Music Review, April 2000; Alan Curtis, Music & Letters, 83:4