It is believed that opera flourished in Florence at the end of the 16th century thanks to a group called the Camerata, who got their name from the fact that a mixture of artists, musicians and writers, would all meet in chambers to discuss the nature of the Greek tragedy. It is important to remember that the idea of Humanism, or more clearly the revival of all that was Greek and Latin, characterised this period of renaissance Italy. At the head of the Camerata was Vincenzo Galilei who deduced that music had played a substantial part in Greek tragedy by adding embellishments of rhythm, melody as well as metre to the spoken drama.

This group attempted to imagine how the ancient Greek dramas had sounded like and came up with what we nowada

In the 15th and 16th centuries opera, even though it was not yet considered as a musical genre, was primarily a source of entertainment at the courts of the Italian aristocracy. It was known as court opera and was mainly funded by noblemen who wanted not only to entertain but also to make apparent their great wealth and importance in the society they were living in. In fact, the first ever operas were written and produced for special occasions such as weddings, coronations and so on. In 1594, the poet Ottavio Rinuccini wrote a small pastoral play and the composers Jacopo Peri and Jacopo Corsi set this play to music in the new style of monody and came up with Dafne in 1598. According to Tevik Dorak, it was considered to be the first ever written opera. However it seems to not have survived the centuries for it has unfortunately been misplaced and lost. A later work, also written by Jacopo Peri, called Euridice dating back to the 1600 is the earliest opera to have survived to the present day. This opera as well as Il rapimento di Cefalo had been commissioned by the Florentine nobles to celebrate the royal marriage between Maria De Medici and Henry IV of France; it was staged at the Palazzo Pitti.

Until the middle of the 17th century, court opera was centred in and around Rome because the noble Barberini family composed of mainly popes and cardinals sponsored many composers and musicians. However, in 1937 Venice opened up the first ever public opera house, Teatro S. Cassiano, entirely supported by the Venetian citizens who were renown for their love of the arts as seen by the spectacles they would prepare for the carnival period, which in itself was the performance of a mini opera.

During this period Claudio Monteverdi was working for the courts of Mantua and felt that he could rival the likes of Peri and Caccini. In fact he did so by composing Orfeo in 1609 for the Duke of Mantua who wanted to add some lustre to the annual carnival in Mantua with the performance of an opera. His opera received a grand welcome from the nobles and so he was later commissioned by the Duke of Mantua to compose another for the wedding of Francesco Gonzagna and Margherita di Savoia. This opera, however, entitled Arianna on its opening night was found to be very dry and too tragic and so the Duke’s bride told Monteverdi to liven it up with more action, more comedy and so on. This was a turning point for renaissance opera, which until then had been seen as oppressive court opera. Instead Monteverdi added intermedi, which were musical interludes between the acts providing a light relief from the heavy drama of the main opera. Also he made his opera very lavish, which of course was seen as a personal display of wealth on the part of the patron who wanted to impress and astonish his guests because in the beginning of t

Some topics in this essay:
Venice Il, Vincenzo Galilei, Teatro Cassiano, Instead Monteverdi, , Capo Aria, Mercurio Marte, Lully France, Rome Venice, Gonzagna Margherita, 17th century, italian opera, recitative arias, source entertainment, court opera, public opera, opera houses, art form, opera opera, italian opera 17th, claudio monteverdi, opera 17th century, development italian opera,