Orfeo by Monteverdi, Fra (2007/2007), Dirigent René Jacobs, Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Austria

If one had to fix the date of birth of the occidental musical theater, the only possible date would be February 24, 1607, the day on which Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo was premiered at the court of the Duke of Mantua. After Vincenzo Gonzaga I had attended a performance of Iacopo Peris Euridice in Florence, he commissioned his house composer Monteverdi with another setting of the ancient myth of the Thracian singer Orpheus, who, thanks to the power of music, crosses the limits of death to which man must succumb .