History Theatre / LOrfeo

* AlternateShowInterpretation: Various productions have used the show to meditate on the themes of grief, death, and love, particularly in ones that use a SettingUpdate to modern or semi-modern times. ** David Bösch's 2014 production had Orpheus returning from the Underworld to find decades have passed, leaving open the idea that the Underworld trip didn't happen at all and he was wasting away grieving Eurydice, while also changing the ending to have [[spoiler:Orpheus die with Eurydice instead of ascending to the stars]].

* AlternateShowInterpretation: Various productions have used the show to meditate on the themes of grief, death, and love, particularly in ones that use a SettingUpdate to modern or semi-modern times. David Bösch's 2014 production had Orpheus returning from the Underworld to find decades have passed, leaving open the idea that the Underworld trip didn't happen at all and he was wasting away grieving Eurydice, while also changing the ending to have [[spoiler:Orpheus die with Eurydice instead of ascending to the stars]].

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: Garsington Opera's version of the show made the messenger Sylvia Eurydice's mother, making the moment where she had to break the news of her death even more tragic.

''L'Orfeo'', sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfe'', is the first landmark {{opera}}, composed by Creator/ClaudioMonteverdi in five acts, with libretto by Alessandro Striggio. While not the first opera in general or the earliest opera with all its score intact (those would be Jacopo Peri's ''Dafne'' and ''Euridice'', respectively), it is the earliest known opera still regularly performed in modern times.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: The opera begins with La Musica, the spirit of music, requesting the audience be silent.

* ShoutOut: As in ''Literature/DantesInferno'', the gates of Hades read "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here," thus Hope cannot follow Orpheus inside.

* AlternateShowInterpretation: Various productions have used the show to meditate on the themes of grief, death, and love, particularly in ones that use a SettingUpdate to modern or semi-modern times. David Bösch's 2014 production had Orpheus returning from the Underworld to find decades have passed, leaving open the idea that the Underworld trip didn't happen at all and he was wasting away grieving Eurydice.

* DarkerAndEdgier: David Bösch's 2014 production was a modern take with a surreal, nightmarish tone even in the happier parts. The Underworld was full of harsh blue lighting and its spirits all looked like Eurydice but with skulls for faces, and the ending had [[spoiler:Orpheus refuse Apollo's offer, take a knife to himself, and lay down with Eurydice in a shared grave]] while [[MoodDissonance the chorus and music rejoiced]].

* TruerToTheText: The opera's original ending was closer to the myth, with Dionysus's followers pursuing Orpheus. Some productions either retain the original ending or alter it to be closer in other ways, such as cutting Apollo's scene or changing it to [[spoiler:have Orpheus refuse his offer and join Eurydice in death]].

* {{Stellification}}: Apollo taking Orpheus to Olympus in the ending is sometimes shown as Orpheus, his lyre, or both becoming a constellation on the night sky.

* TruerToTheText: The opera's original ending was closer to the myth, with Dionysus's followers pursuing Orpheus. Some productions either retain the original ending or alter it to be closer in other ways, such as cutting Apollo's scene or changing it to [[spoiler:have Orpheus join Eurydice in death]].

* AlternateShowInterpretation: Various productions have used the show to meditate on the themes of grief, death, and love, with David Bösch's 2014 production having Orpheus returning from the Underworld to find decades have passed, leaving open the idea that the Underworld trip didn't happen at all and he was wasting away grieving Eurydice.

* TruerToTheText: The opera's original ending was closer to the myth, with Dionysus's followers pursuing Orpheus, and some productions either retain the original ending or alter it to be closer in other ways, such as cutting Apollo's scene.

* TruerToTheText: The opera's original ending was closer to the myth, with Dionysus's followers pursuing Orpheus. Some productions alter it to be closer in other ways, such as cutting Apollo's scene.

''L'Orfeo'', sometimes called ''La favola d'Orfe'', is the first landmark {{opera}}, composed by Creator/ClaudioMonteverdi with libretto by Alessandro Striggio. While not the first opera in general or the earliest opera with all its score intact (those would be Jacopo Peri's ''Dafne'' and ''Euridice'', respectively), it is the earliest known opera still regularly performed in modern times.

Like Peri's earlier works, the opera is based on Myth/ClassicalMythology, specifically Orpheus's dramatic journey to the Underworld to rescue his bride, Eurydice, after she is killed by a snake on their wedding day. With only his music to aid him and the Underworld being a place where even hope dare not enter, Orpheus sets out to plead his case to Hades and Persephone and retrieve Eurydice. Hades agrees, on one condition: Orpheus must lead Eurydice out while she follows behind, and if he turns to look at her, she stays in the Underworld for good.

* CanonForeigner: Sylvia, the nymph messenger and close friend of Eurydice's, is original to the opera, and while Apollo is a Greek God who fathered Orpheus in some traditions, he doesn't feature in the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.

* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Orpheus sets out to rescue Eurydice this way. He makes it all the way there and succeeds in moving Hades, [[spoiler: but fails due to hearing a noise behind him and turning around]].

* MoodWhiplash: Everyone's preparing for Orfeo's wedding to Euridice, and most of the opera up to Act II has been one long celebration of the 'happy and fortunate day'... and then suddenly a [[BearerOfBadNews Messenger]] arrives and announces that Euridice has just died.