La Dafne

[2] It had originally been intended to form part of the wedding celebrations of Prince Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua and Margherita of Savoy, but the arrival of the bride was delayed and the staging was brought forward (Monteverdi's opera L'Arianna was also written for the marriage but not performed until May).

The men of the Florentine Camerata sought to revive the classic Greek dramas under the hypothesis that all text was originally sung.

[7] Gagliano also indicates that the instruments voiced in the choral sections and ritornellos should play prior to the start of the opera, though no overture is actually written.

While short, it offers heightened emotions and dramatic opportunities, including the eight stanza chorus that celebrates the nymph's flight from Apollo's attack called, ‘Bella ninfa fugitive.’[8] Typical of composition techniques at the birth of Italian opera, Gagliano set Rinuccini's text of Dafne with homophonic choruses intertwined with intermittent choral polyphony.

The prologue is delivered by the poet Ovid as he sings the text: When the opera proper begins, the god Apollo slays the Python, a monster which has been terrifying the Greek island of Delos.

Cupid shoots two arrows, the first of which makes Apollo fall in love with the nymph Daphne, daughter of the river god.