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The Early Italian
Baroque
and the opera
In the last quarter of the 16th century in Florence,
a group of writers and musicians who called themselves «Camerata» came
to the conclusion that the elaborate contrapuntal tissue of music
overshadowed the words and these, they believed, should always be more
relevant than music, whose function would be only to express emotions
and states of mind.
Although several attempts were made at the time for the survival of
opera, it took a genius to bring a new breath of life and emotion to the
style Cláudio Monteverdi. Born in Cremona at the end of the
Renaissance period, Monteverdi was not only a compositor and a maestro,
but also a singer and a gambist. Monteverdi was the main «architect» of
the transition from Renaissance to Baroque, being historically known as
the «Father» of Opera.
L' Orfeo had its debut in Mântua, in 1607, with music from Monteverdi
and libreto form Striggio, and was in fact the first opera arriving to
the present day where great music stresses the dramatic impact of the
libreto.
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