THE FIRST OPERA GETS NEW LIFE FROM
HAYMARKET AND NEWBERRY CONSORT

The origins of opera are somewhat obscure and not well-known. Haymarket Opera and The Newberry Consort, two of Chicago’s finest early music ensembles, aim to change that with this delightful concert performance of the first surviving opera. Written and performed for the marriage of King Henri IV of France and Maria de Medici in 1600, Euridice is actually Jacopo Peri’s second opera. Only fragments survive of his first opera Dafne (1597). Ottavio Rinuccini wrote both librettos.

Is Peri’s Euridice truly the first extant opera? His rival Giulio Caccini also set Rinuccini’s libretto to music and even contributed music to Peri’s opera, before writing his own version. Caccini’s opera was actually published first, though not performed until 1602. According to The Newberry Consort’s cofounder Howard Mayer Brown (1930-1993), Peri’s Euridice is superior. Though neither Peri nor Caccini are performed much today, both paved the way for Claudio Monteverdi, whose three surviving operas I was fortunate enough to see at the Harris Theater in 2017, performed by the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.

Euridice tells the fabled and popular story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Rinuccini’s libretto, however, opts to give the Greek tragedy a happy ending. Thus, Orfeo successfully rescues his beloved Euridice from the Underworld. The story is told by a variety of characters besides these, including gods, nymphs, and shepherds. And they really do narrate the story; there’s not much in the way of actual drama. Apart from some ensemble singing, the entire opera is recitative, with nary an aria or duet in evidence.

Among the talented and youthful cast there is not a single poor performance, despite the technical and ornamental style of singing involved. Mezzo soprano Christine Boddicker opens the production with a lengthy sung monologue as La Tragedia, originally written for a castrato. Her voice is exceptionally pretty, with a clear, bright tone, but her performance was somewhat bland. Soprano Hannah de Priest showed rather more range and expression, especially when singing of Euridice’s death as Dafne, with its dark and tortured chromaticism. As Arcetro and Shepherd I, Ryan Belongie’s countertenor is delightfully sturdy and lissome.

I would have liked to hear far more of Erica Schuller’s charming soprano, but as the eponymous heroine, her role is disappointingly slight. Instead, it is Scott Brunscheen as Orfeo that we hear most. His unctuous tenor is really too smooth and legato, needing more varied expression; it’s also ever-so-slightly off pitch. Brunscheen, however, has matured considerably as a vocal artist since his first performance with Haymarket Opera.

The orchestra, led by Craig Trompeter and LizaMalamut comprises an extraordinary museum of period instruments, from the cornetti and sackbuts to theorbos and lirone. Many of these 17th-century instruments can only be seen in performance with The Newberry Consort. As Peri’s score is sketchy–quite literally–each musician must improvise as necessary. They have also augmented the size of the orchestra considerably beyond what sparse directions are available and added various interludes composed by Peri’s contemporaries: Marenzio, Cavalieri, and Malvezzi.

Haymarket Opera and The Newberry Consort deserve the warmest congratulations for collaborating to bring this 425-year old opera to life during their 15th- and 40th-anniversary seasons, respectively. This concert performance of Peri’s Euridice will not win entry for this early work in the operatic canon, but it does reveal the growing popularity of and demand for early opera.

photos by Elliot Mandel

Euridice
a co-production from Haymarket Opera Company and The Newberry Consort
played the Art Institute of Chicago on October 24, 2025
reviewed at the Music Institute of Chicago on October 25, 2025
for more info, visit Haymarket and Newberry