April 14, 2008
SELINSGROVE, (Pa.)-The Department of Music will close its concert season with performances of Claudio Monteverdi's early operatic masterpiece, L'Orfeo, April 25-26 at 8 p.m. in Stretansky Concert Hall.
L'Orfeo's five acts detail the familiar Greek myth of Orpheus, whose music is so powerful it is capable of moving the gods. He uses that power to charm the guardians of Hades into allowing him to retrieve his dead wife Euridice from the underworld on the condition that he not look at her until they arrive back on Earth. On their journey back to the upper world, he unlawfully turns to look at her and loses her forever.
Monteverdi's setting of the story was first performed during the 1607 carnival season in Mantua, Italy. Susquehanna's production sets the action not in ancient Greece, but in the 17 th -century carnival atmosphere of the opera's premiere.
The opera will be sung in English with orchestral accompaniment. Admission is free and tickets are not required. For more information, contact David Steinau, the director, at (570) 372-4285 or steinau@susqu.edu .
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Contact: Gerald Cohen
570-372-4119
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