Claudio Monteverdi (1567 - 1643) Italian

A list of compositions by Claudio Monteverdi


Claudio Monteverdi  (1567 - 1643).

"Make the words the mistress of the music and not the servant."   

Monteverdi was an Italian composer, gambist, singer, and Catholic priest.  He is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music history. While he worked extensively in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony, such as in his madrigals, he also made great developments in form and melody and began employing the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque.  Monteverdi wrote one of the earliest operas, L'Orfeo (1607), which is the earliest surviving opera still regularly performed.  Early in his composing career, Monteverdi worked at the court of Vincenzo I of Gonzaga in Mantua as a vocalist and viol player, then as music director.  In 1612 he moved to Venice where he was the musical director of St. Mark's Basilica until his death.


Vespro della Beata Vergine  (Vespers 1610) "Night prayers for the Blessed Virgin". 
Youtube: Live performance 1 hour, 45 minutes.    John Eliot Gardiner, conductor.

The term "Vespers" (evening prayers) is taken from the Hours of the Divine Office, a set of daily prayers of the Catholic Church which have remained structurally unchanged for 1500 years.  Vespers was the most ambitious work of religious music before Bach.  This 90-minute piece includes soloists, chorus, and orchestra and has both liturgical (religious) and extra-liturgical (non-religous) elements. The Vespers is monumental in scale, and requires a choir large enough and skillful enough to cover up to 10 vocal parts in some movements and split into separate choirs in others while accompanying seven different soloists during the course of the piece.  It stands out for its assimilation of both old and new styles. 


L'Orfeo  (1607)  The Greek myth of Orpheus.   (Synopsis) 

Youtube:  Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor.

L'Orfeo is the earliest opera that is still regularly performed.  The Mantua court (northern Italy) of the Gonzagas, employers of Monteverdi, played a significant role in the origin of opera employing not only court singers of the concerto delle donne (till 1598), but also one of the first actual "opera singers"; Madama Europa. 

By the early 17th century traditional intermedio—a musical sequence between the acts of a straight play—was evolving into the form of a complete musical drama or "opera".  Monteverdi's L'Orfeo moved this process out of its experimental era and provided the first fully developed example of the new genre.

The libretto by Alessandro Striggio is based on the Greek legend of Orpheus, and tells the story of his descent to Hades and his fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to the living world. Striggio's main sources for his libretto were Books 10 and 11 of Ovid's Metamorphoses and Book Four of Virgil's Georgics.   

The moral of Orpheus is that only men who subdue their passions with reason are worthy of reward.    

           Overture and Prologue "Dal mi permessdiceo"  (4:25)   The muse of music asks for the audience's attention.

           Orpheus' and Eurydice's wedding scene  (2:51) 

           Possente spirito - Aria from Act III  (9:00) 


           Orpheus pleads with ferryman Charon to transport him across the river Styx to the underworld.  The beginning of the aria is adorned with several flowery passaggii interspersed with light violin passages (display of virtuosity).  Near the end, when Charon is unmoved,  Orpheus changes to an unadorned recitativo for a last plea (a display of sincerity, a la Caccini).       



L'incoronazione di Poppea  (1642) 

Youtube: Live performance:  Acts 1 & 2, Act 3. (2 hours, 42 min). 

"Poppea" was staged when Monteverdi was 74 years old.  One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress.

Unlike L'Orfeo, which was composed for the courts, Poppea was composed for the new public theaters.  It premiered at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice during the 1643 carnival season. 

Giovanni Francesco Busenello's libretto mocks virtue and celebrates vice.  The relationship between Poppea and Nero is defined as lewd and lustful.  In a departure from traditional literary morality, it is the adulterous liaison of Poppea and Nero which wins the day, although this triumph is demonstrated by history to have been transitory and hollow.    

In Busenello's Poppeo, all the major characters are morally compromised.  Written when the genre of opera was only a few decades old, the music for L'incoronazione di Poppea has been praised for its originality, its melody, and for its reflection of the human attributes of its characters.  The public crowds enjoyed stories of fallen heroes and princes and morality overturned.