The Influence of Ovid in Opera

Abstract

Even during the formative period, Ovid's poetry provided the subject matter for a number of high-profile Renaissance court performances combining ancient mythological narratives, drama, and music. As the narrative center of most Florentine operas following the Ottavio Rinuccini/Jacopo Peri Dafne and Euridice, Ovidian subjects were used throughout Europe as the genre spread during the seventeenth century. Several stories derived primarily from the Metamorphoses predominated—Orpheus and Eurydice, Perseus and Andromeda, Venus and Adonis, Pyramus and Thisbe, and the rape of Persephone. However, Ariadne's lament from Heroides 10 and passages from both the Fasti and Ars Amatoria were reworked as well. The most important series of Ovidian-inspired works were the tragédies en musique by Philippe Quinault and Jean-Baptist Lully: Cadmus et Hermione, Atys, Isis, Proserpine, Persée, and Phaëthon. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century opera librettos only occasionally employed Ovidian subjects, but the twentieth century fostered a renaissance populated by disparate experimental works.

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