Poliziano: La Fabula Di Orpheo

When Angelo Poliziano wrote his Fabula di Orpheo around 1480, he was famed as a lyric poet thoughout Italy and beyond. He was a master of the ottava rima, the poetic form later to form the basis of recitative.With this work, he was opening the gates that would lead to opera and to another masterpiece on the same subject, 127 years later: Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.