Update: Jonas Salk said: If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end.
Attila (opera) Attila is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the 1809 play Attila, KÃ¶nig der Hunnen (Attila, King of the Huns) by Zacharias Werner. The opera received its first performance at La Fenice in Venice on 17 March 1846.
Euridice (1600) is the first surviving opera. The libretto was by Rinuccini, music by Peri, with some portions by Caccini. This was also significant in that it used recitative, a foundation of operatic storytelling. But--what was the first great opera? My vote is for Monteverdi's Orfeo, libretto by Striggio, premiered in 1607.