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)

• 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