The oldest opera on this list and the oldest opera in the repertoire, It is often referred to as the first ever opera though this is a misnomer. First performed in 1607, L'Orfeo shows us what opera was like at the very beginning. It contains much beautiful music, enough to soothe the savage souls of Hades... The singing can sound strange and exotic to our modern ears, but without this work we would not have the art form we have today.
Here is the full video of Ponnelle and Harnoncourt's landmark Zurich production from 1978 that brought L'Orfeo back to the repertoire after years of neglect.
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