Peri’s musical plays were hatched in Corsi’s incubator, La Dafne possibly as early as 1594. Its first
performance took place, possibly at Corsi’s residence and with Peri himself in the role of Apollo, during
the Florence carnival of 1597 (1598 by the modern calendar), in the presence of the leading nobles of the
city including the resident Medici overlord. It was revived several times thereafter, the latest revival
taking place in 1604 at the brand new Pitti Palace. The libretto was set again in 1608 by Marco da
Gagliano, and Gagliano’s preface to the published score of his setting, which survives, is our chief
witness to the original Dafne. It is Gagliano’s insistence on the novelty of Rinuccini’s and Peri’s
spectacle that has led to its being accorded the exalted position it now occupies in history as the first
opera, in preference to Cavalieri’s pastorals or any previous “musical tale” (favola in musica), to use
Gagliano’s expression.
Calling the work the first opera, of course, puts it in a line that connects it with us; for opera is the
first genre encountered since the beginning of this narrative that has persisted in an apparently unbroken
tradition all the way to the present. As we shall see, however, the apparent continuity may be somewhat
misleading; and so we shall resist the word “opera” for a while and instead go on calling the early
spectacles of Peri, Caccini, Gagliano, and (in the next chapter) Monteverdi “musical tales.”
“The pleasure and amazement produced in the audience by this novel spectacle cannot be described,”
Gagliano reports. “Suffice it to say that each of the many times it was performed it generated the same
admiration and the same delight.” Then comes a significant remark: “This experiment having taught Signor
Rinuccini how well singing was suited to the expression of every sort of affection, and that it not only
afforded no tediousness (as many might perchance have presumed) but indeed incredible delight, he
composed his Euridice, dilating somewhat more in the dialogues.”^11 So the difference between Rinuccini
and Peri’s Euridice, the first musical tale that does survive, and their previous Dafne was the same as the
difference between Dafne and earlier musico-scenic spectacles. That difference lies in the greater