Humanism
and the Birth of Opera
• “Baroque”
– “A baroque music is that in which the harmony is
confused, charged with modulations and
dissonances, the melody is harsh and little natural,
the intonation difficult, and the movement
constrained.”
• J. J. Rousseau, Dictionnaire de musique (1768)
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Age of Absolutism
Galilean period
Cartesian period
Theatrical age
The continuo age
– Basso continuo
The Pressure of Humanism
• “Academy”
• Florentine Camerata
– Count Giovanni de’ Bardi
– Girolamo Mei (1519–1594)
– Vincenzo Galilei (late 1520s–1591)
• Dialogo della musica antica et della
moderna (1581)
The Representational Style
• Stile rappresentativo
• “Monody”
– a single voice accompanied by the lute
Intermedii
• Entertainment for the wedding of Princess
Christine of Lorraine and the Grand Duke
Ferdinando de’ Medici (1589)
• Between the acts of La pellegrina
Intermedii
• Entertainment for the wedding of Princess
Christine of Lorraine and the Grand Duke
Ferdinando de’ Medici (1589)
• Between the acts of La pellegrina
• Ottavio Rinuccini (1562–1621)
• Emilio de’ Cavalieri (ca. 1550–1602)
• Giulio Caccini (1551–1618)
• Jacopo Peri (1561–1633)
The Monodic Revolution
• Cavalieri, Rappresentatione di Anima, et di
Corpo (1600)
– “for recitation in singing”
– earliest printed figured bass
– stile recitativo
The Monodic Revolution
• Peri and Caccini, Euridice (1601)
[Anthology 1-65]
– pastoral play
– Rinuccini
– Myth of Orpheus and Euridice
– recitative
Madrigals and Arias Revisited
• Caccini, Le nuove musiche (1602)
– “new music”
– solo songs: madrigals and arias
– Amarilli mia bella [Anthology 1-66]
Favola in Musica
• La Dafne (1598)
– Peri and Rinuccini
• La Dafne (1608)
– Marco da Gagliano (1582–1643)
– Favola in musica (musical tale)
Operatic Conventions:
Heard and Unheard Music
• Representing music
• Representing speech
• “Music was coded one way for the characters
onstage and another way for the audience”
Monteverdi:
From Court to Commerce
• L’Orfeo (1607)
– favola in musica
– written for court
• L’incoronazione di Poppea (1643)
– Opera regia (regal work)
– public music drama
– commercial opera
Monteverdi
• 1590: began serving Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke
of Mantua
• 1605: Fifth Book of Madrigals
• 1607: Scherzi musicali
– response to Artusi
– prima pratica
• Ars perfecta, stile antico
– seconda pratica
• emerging new musical style
L’Orfeo:
The Quintessential Princely Spectacle
• [Anthology 1-67, 68]
• Performed in 1607 (printed in 1609)
• Libretto by Alessandro Striggio
Monteverdi in Venice
• 1613: begins serving as maestro di cappella at
St. Mark’s
• 1638: Eighth Book of Madrigals, Madrigali
guerrieri et amorosi
– Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
• stile concitato (agitated style)
Opera and Its Politics
• Teatro San Cassiano
– public opera house
– opened during the carnival season, 1637
• Castrati
The Carnival Show:
L’incoronazione Di Poppea
• Written for public Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo
in 1643
• Libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello