This week, I again wanted to focus on Act II, as I feel like I definitely have a slightly better comprehension of the opera as well as the musical methods Monteverdi employes to express the feelings of the plot. Furthermore, Act II is such a crucial part of the opera; it is arguably the most emotionally charged act, as it is here that Orfeo discovers that his sweet Euridice has been taken from him.
In fact, it is remarkably impressive how Monteverdi writes and expresses Orfeo's reaction to this crushing news. Orfeo's first reaction is to gently mutter; "Tu, se morta, se morta mia vita, ed io respiro?" The tone of the music here is understandably sombre, with the long chords of the pipe organ serving only to increase and emphasize the despair in Orfeo's voice. It is almost as though Orfeo is in complete disbelief, the news is just too much for him to accept. He holds the "Tu" for a relatively long time, almost as though embracing Euridice in his mind for one very last time, but by the end of "morta," his voice has almost completely faded out, with the organ and harp also dying out completely, to create a short, pained silence. He then repeats "se morta" but this time with the harp hitting a particularly painful, anguished chord and continuing on to state "mia vita." Once again, there is another short, sharp silence, which reminds us that Euridice is indeed dead. The silence emphasizes death and nothingness. Perhaps, this short silences also serves to imitate the sharp, emotional intake of breath that somebody makes when they are completely overcome by emotion. This leads fittingly into Orfeo's question, "ed io respiro?" ("and I still living?") - a rhetorical question, a statement of fact. How can it be that he can live on by himself, without his sweet love.
All in all, this single line reveals so much about not only about Orfeo's character, a man so dominated by his passions, but also about the musical genius of Monteverdi, in expressing the raw human emotion of anguish and sorrow.
