 Italian composer Francesco Cavalli wrote the opera , L <unk> in 1653 . The story is set on the Greek island of Delos and focuses on Diana 's love for Orion as well as on her rival , Aurora . Diana shoots Orion only after being tricked by Apollo into thinking him a sea monster — she then laments his death and searches for Orion in the underworld until he is elevated to the heavens . Johann Christian Bach ( ' the English Bach ' ) wrote an opera , Orion , or Diana <unk> 'd , first presented at London 's Haymarket Theatre in 1763 . Orion , sung by a castrato , is in love with Candiope , the daughter of Oenopion , King of Arcadia but his arrogance has offended Diana . Diana 's oracle forbids him to marry Candiope and foretells his glory and death . He bids a touching farewell to Candiope and marches off to his destiny . Diana allows him his victory and then kills him , offstage , with her arrow . In another aria , his mother <unk> ( Queen of Thebes ) , laments his death but ultimately sees his elevation to the heavens . The 2002 opera Galileo Galilei by American composer Philip Glass includes an opera within an opera piece between Orion and Merope . The sunlight , which heals Orion 's blindness , is an allegory of modern science . Philip Glass has also written a shorter work on Orion , as have Tōru Takemitsu , <unk> <unk> , and John <unk> . David Bedford 's late @-@ twentieth @-@ century works are about the constellation rather than the mythical figure ; he is an amateur astronomer . 
