Opera in one prologue and six scenes with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, premiered at the Pitti Palace in Florence in 1600.
Inventing the famous recitar cantando, Peri sought to recreate the chanting style of Greek tragedies, a form of singing that was ‘halfway between speaking and singing’. It came as a real shock to listeners. This is what Les Épopées convey in their interpretation, no longer the high notes, but the high tones of declamation. ‘The effect is striking,’ says Denis Morrier, a leading specialist in the Seicento, about their Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria by Monteverdi.
