It is only the reflective eye of retrospective study that can discern all the significant elements happily combined in this event by the overmastering laws of human progress.
To enter into a detailed examination of the matter would demand of us a review of the whole movement known as the Renaissance.

This, however, is not essential to an appreciation of the precise nature of the step from the sacred representation to the lyric drama and its importance in laying the foundations of opera.

This momentous step was taken late in the fifteenth century with the performance of Angelo Poliziano's "Favola di Orfeo" at the Court of Mantua to celebrate the return of the Cardinal Gonzaga.

The Italian authorities are by no means agreed as to the importance of this production.

Rossi says:[10] "The circle of plot in the religious drama, at first restricted to the life of Christ, had been gradually broadened.