Some Forerunners of Italian Opera

by W. J. Henderson

"L'Aria di pianti s'oda risuonare,

Che d' ogni luce e priva:

E al nostro lagrimare

Crescano i fiumi al colmo della riva—"

The refrain, "l'aria di pianti" is repeated at the end of each stanza. At the conclusion of this chorus the dryads leave the stage. Orpheus enters singing a Latin stanza of four lines beginning:

"Musa, triumphales titulos et gesta canamus

Herculis."

In Padre Affo's edition it is at this point that a dryad tells Orpheus of Euridice's death. Mnesillus, a satyr, mocks him. The hero now sings in the vernacular:

"Ora piangiamo, O sconsolata lyra," etc.