This stage "business" in English reads: "Orpheus singing on the hill to his lyre the following Latin verses is interrupted by a shepherd announcing the death of Euridice." Thirteen verses of the song are given before the entrance of the shepherd, and immediately after the announcement Orpheus descends into Hades.

In the Padre Affo's later version of the work this song of Orpheus does not appear, but a dryad announces to her sisters the death of Euridice and then follows a chorus: "L'Aria di pianti s'oda risuonare, Che d' ogni luce e priva: E al nostro lagrimare Crescano i fiumi al colmo della riva--" The refrain, "l'aria di pianti" is repeated at the end of each stanza.
At the conclusion of this chorus the dryads leave the stage.

Orpheus enters singing a Latin stanza of four lines beginning: "Musa, triumphales titulos et gesta canamus Herculis." In Padre Affo's edition it is at this point that a dryad tells Orpheus of Euridice's death.

Mnesillus, a satyr, mocks him.

The hero now sings in the vernacular: "Ora piangiamo, O sconsolata lyra," etc.
"Let us lament, O lyre disconsolate: Our wonted music is in tune no more." The story now moves similarly in both editions.