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The versification again exhibits novel features, the piece being for the most part in ottava rima with the introduction of settenarî couplets. In the former we may perhaps see the influence of the Orfeo, or possibly of the old sacre rappresentationi themselves.
Before proceeding to a consideration of this music, let us picture to ourselves how the work was performed. The Performance of "Orfeo" The "Orfeo" was performed in a hall of the castle. The lyric dramas of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were all presented in private.
The first lyric number of the "Orfeo," that sung by Aristæus, is plainly labeled "canzona," and was, therefore, without doubt a song made after the manner of the lutenists. The words "forth from thy wallet take thy pipe" indicate that a wind instrument figured in this number. What sort of instrument we shall inquire in the next chapter.
II., Revival of Learning, p. 212. Nothing is known about Mantegna's stay in Florence. He went to meet the Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga at Bologna. This Cardinal, a great amateur of music and connoisseur in relics of antiquity, came to Mantua in August, 1472, where the "Orfeo" of Messer Angelo Poliziano was produced for his amusement.
But this also is no bad story. But Ellis could not know others, and he left alone yet others that he might have known the exquisite Sir Launfal of Thomas Chester at the beginning of the fifteenth century, where an unworthy presentment of Guinevere is compensated by the gracious image of Launfal's fairy love; the lively adventures of William of Palerne, who had a werewolf for his friend and an emperor's daughter for his love, eloping with her in white bear-skins, the unusual meat of which was being cooked in her father's kitchen; Sir Orfeo Orpheus and Eurydice, with a happy ending; Emarè, one of the tales of innocent but persecuted heroines of which Chaucer's Constance is the best known; Florence of Rome; the rather famous Squire of Low Degree; Sir Amadas, not a very good handling of a fine motive, charity to a corpse; many others.
The music commenced under Marcia's direction. There were piano solos that were not tedious, full of melody and feeling, and with few of the pyrotechnical displays which are too common in modern virtuoso-playing; vocal duets and quartets from the Italian operas, and from Orfeo and other German masterpieces; and solos, if not equal to the efforts of professional singers, highly creditable to amateurs, to say the least.
Even the organ had as yet acquired no independent office, but simply supported voices by doubling their notes. It seems unlikely, then, that the pipe in "Orfeo" could have had a real part. What it probably did was to repeat as a sort of ritornello the clearly marked refrain of the song.
He thus loses the slight opportunity previously afforded him of presenting a dramatic individuality apart from the very essence of his tragedy. The announcement to Orfeo of Euridice's death begins the third act of the revised text, which is amplified at this point by the introduction of a satyr Mnesillo, who acts as chorus to Orfeo's lament.
We have already noticed it in the case of Tasso's 'Or, non sai tu com' è fatta la donna? and of the words in which Corisca describes her changes of lovers, to say nothing of its appearance at the close of the Orfeo.
Beautiful as 'Orfeo' is and the best proof of its enduring beauty is that, after nearly a hundred and fifty years of change and development, it has lost none of its power to charm we must not be blind to the fact that it is a strange combination of strength and weakness.
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