L'Orfeo is an early Baroque opera by Claudio Monteverdi, with a text by
Alessandro Striggio. It is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and
tells the story of his descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to
bring his dead bride Eurydice back to the living world. Written in 1607
for a court performance during the annual Carnival at Mantua, L'Orfeo
is one of the earliest music dramas still regularly performed. Its
score was published by Monteverdi in 1609 and again in 1615. After the
composer's death in 1643 the opera remained unperformed, and was
largely forgotten until a revival of interest in the late 19th century
led to a spate of modern editions and performances. After the Second
World War most new editions sought authenticity through the use of
period instruments. Strings, harpsichords and recorders represent the
pastoral fields of Thrace with their nymphs and shepherds, heavy brass
illustrates the underworld and its denizens. Composed at the point of
transition from the Renaissance era to the Baroque, L'Orfeo employs all
the resources then known within the art of music, with particularly
daring use of polyphony. The work is not orchestrated as such; in the
Renaissance tradition instrumentalists followed the composer's general
instructions but were given considerable freedom to improvise.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Orfeo>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1582:
Spain, Portugal, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and most of the
Italian states became the first countries to replace the Julian
calendar with the Gregorian calendar.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar>
1951:
Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes conducted the very last step of the
first synthesis of norethisterone, the progestin that would later be
used in one of the first two oral contraceptives.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_E._Miramontes>
1954:
Hurricane Hazel made landfall in The Carolinas in the United States
before moving north to Toronto in Canada later the same day, killing a
total of 176 people in both countries.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Hazel>
1970:
Thirty-five construction workers were killed when a section of the West
Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapsed due to structural failure.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Gate_Bridge>
2003:
Chinese space program: Shenzhou 5, China's first manned space mission,
was launched, carrying astronaut Yang Liwei.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhou_5>
2007:
New Zealand Police conducted several anti-terrorism raids in relation
to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp in the
Urewera mountain ranges, arresting 17 people and seizing four guns and
230 rounds of ammunition.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_New_Zealand_anti-terror_raids>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
anadromous (adj):
1. (of a migratory fish) That lives in the sea and breeds in fresh
water.
2. (botany) Of a fern in which the first veins in a frond segment are
produced towards the apex of the frond
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anadromous>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was
the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their
people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of
leadership.
--John Kenneth Galbraith
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith>