Since the 17th Century, at least 75 operas, have been written about the demi-God Orpheus, his powerful musical skills, the cruel death of his wife Eurydice, his descent into the underworld, and his destruction at the hands of Maenads who tore him to pieces. 

Join Chris Stacey and Daniel Balsam for a Coda Clash that features multiple productions of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607). "The Orpheus legend is utterly central to how opera emerged at the close of the Italian Renaissance and to the way its first pioneers tried to justify its existence as a revival of ancient Greek sung drama....At its heart, then, is the mysterious power of accompanied song in L’Orfeo, appealing both to the senses and to the spirit. The fact that music is capable of fluid, imperceptible change and harmonic modulation gives it the facility to straddle one realm of existence and the next," writes conductor John Eliot Gardiner. 

Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Times: 6:00PM Central, 7:00PM Eastern, 4:00PM Pacific. For those in Europe the time is 12:00AM in London on December 18.

Location: Zoom Video Conference

Cost: Free to all.

Photo Credit: Galerie 1 2 3, Public Domain, L'Orfeo de Claudio Monteverdi, Roland Aeschlimann, 1998, Reference: CHF 360