Euridice (Peri) Euridice (Peri) Euridice (also Erudice or Eurydice) is an opera by Jacopo Peri, with additional music by Giulio Caccini. It is the earliest surviving opera, Peri's earlier "Dafne" being lost. (Caccini wrote his own "Euridice" even as he supplied music to Peri's opera, published this version before Peri's was performed, in 1600, and got it staged two years later.) The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini is based on books X and XI of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" which recount the story of the legendary musician Orpheus and his wife Euridice. The opera was first performed in Florence on 6 October 1600 at the
Jacopo d'Angelo School of Chrysoloras. At this school Chrysoloras would become one of the first people to teach the Greek language to Italians. Many scholars would flock to this school including Leonardo Bruni, an Italian scholar who would later become a famous humanist and Jacopo's rival. After a meeting between Jacopo and Chrysoloras, they decided to return to Constantinople in 1395. At the time of his arrival, the city was under siege by the Muslim Turks. There, Jacopo learned the Greek language and studied Ancient Greek texts. While in Constantinople, Jacopo met a scholar by the name of Manuel Calecas who was