Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi (born May 15, 1567, Cremona; died November 12, 1643, Venice) is considered the inventor of opera and a reformer of vocal music at the stylistic boundary of the Baroque era. The son of a physician, he initially studied in Cremona with the cathedral choirmaster Marc Antonio Ingegneri and worked as a viola player in Mantua from 1590 onwards. On a journey through Flanders in the retinue of the Duke of Mantua, he became acquainted with the French singing style and compared it with the art of madrigal composition customary in his homeland. The Italian school had achieved such perfection in the sonic shaping that the content of the texts had largely receded into the background. For Monteverdi, this was an artistic imbalance that he sought to rectify through compositional means. In the preface to "Scherzi musicali" (1607), he therefore formulated a new principle of musical composition, contrasting the hitherto strict rules of the madrigal with a "Seconda pratica," in which the perfection of the melody was placed at the center. This meant, however, that the text, as its essential component, became the master over the musical setting. As an example, Monteverdi presented his "Favola in musica" titled "L'Orfeo" in Mantua on February 24, 1607, whose plot, in a mythologically symbolic sense, clarified his ideas. For in this legend, Orpheus, by the power of his song, managed to persuade both the ferryman to the underworld and its ruler to release his deceased wife, at least for moments. Claudio Monteverdi countered the polyphony of the Renaissance with the power of solo singing, the so-called monody. "L'Orfeo" thus became the starting point of opera, which quickly gained popularity throughout Europe following this initial impetus. Monteverdi also composed numerous canzonettas, modified madrigal singing towards basso continuo-accompanied and solo madrigals, and thereby demonstrably influenced European art music from Heinrich Schütz well into the modern era of a Carl Orff. Monteverdi's later operas include "Il ballo delle ingrate" (1608), "Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" (1640), and "L'incoronazione di Poppea" (1642).