# After Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I don’t always agree with David Hurwitz but I want to steal his idea here. This will be a series of threads, if all goes well, where members can discuss and recommend lesser known operas that bear stylistic resemblance to various operas throughout history. It might be a good place for people visiting the forum wishing to expand their knowledge of the repertoire and find less usual recommendations with a good reference point.

L’Orfeo is usually presented as the first true opera and is undeniably one of the most important works in the repertoire. Are there other operas of the time that you think deserve more recognition? Which works would you recommend to those who love early operatic works such as this? Are there any great recordings of this repertoire that people need to know about?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

L'Euridice


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Op.123 said:


> is undeniably one of the most important works in the repertoire.


Btw, some people say L'Orfeo is one of the earliest "through-composed" operas, but I think it's just an early Baroque opera with emotional weight in the recitatives. The ritornelli, recitatives, choruses end without "transitions" between them.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Marco da Gagliano's _La Dafne_ is delightful, full of color. _La Dafne_ was written for the wedding of Prince Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua and Margherita of Savoy, a wedding which also gave rise to Monteverdi's wildly popular lost opera _L'Arianna_. Marco's preface to the printed edition of 1608 is important because it provides an outline of the immediate circumstances of opera's modest beginnings. He also discusses many stylistic matters regarding the performance of opera, including the functions of the actors and chorus and the need for the greatest care in achieving balance between allowing the singers freedom and keeping to an elegant accompaniment.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

hammeredklavier said:


> Btw, some people say L'Orfeo is one of the earliest "through-composed" operas, but I think it's just an early Baroque opera with emotional weight in the recitatives. The ritornelli, recitatives, choruses end without "transitions" between them.


What through-composed does mean? Is it written as a solid work, not assembled from several pieces of different purposes by one composer? And how could it be proven?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Orfeo is OK, Combattimento is fun, Ritorno is problematic and I probably should give it some more attention. But the surviving masterpiece is L’incornazione.

Re recordings, there is are fine productions of two of them on record from Ponnelle. I also have fond memories of Clemencic ‘s Combattimento.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

RICK RIEKERT said:


> Marco da Gagliano's _La Dafne_ is delightful, full of color. _La Dafne_ was written for the wedding of Prince Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua and Margherita of Savoy, a wedding which also gave rise to Monteverdi's wildly popular lost opera _L'Arianna_. Marco's preface to the printed edition of 1608 is important because it provides an outline of the immediate circumstances of opera's modest beginnings. He also discusses many stylistic matters regarding the performance of opera, including the functions of the actors and chorus and the need for the greatest care in achieving balance between allowing the singers freedom and keeping to an elegant accompaniment.


This is the way a wedding should be celebrated.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

ColdGenius said:


> What through-composed does mean? Is it written as a solid work, not assembled from several pieces of different purposes by one composer? And how could it be proven?


_"The term "through-composed" is also applied to opera and musical theater to indicate a work that consists of an uninterrupted stream of music from beginning to end, as in the operas of Wagner, as opposed to having a collection of songs interrupted by recitative or spoken dialogue, as occurs in Baroque or Mozart's Italian- and German-language operas, respectively." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through-composed_music)_

Salieri's Tarare was argued to be a truly through-composed opera before Wagner, but there is a section (that is not the end of an act) that simply end without a transition to the next.
"Acte II, Scène 6: « J'irai : Oui, j'oserai !" www.youtube.com/watch?v=0THBwItvR5Q&t=1m10s


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

ColdGenius said:


> This is the way a wedding should be celebrated.


Aye, the Prince's father, Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, had deep pockets. Marco was paid 200 scudi for his contribution to the festivities. Monteverdi claimed he (Marco) had been overpaid and complained bitterly, especially since his own salary was in arrears. In January, 1609 Duke Vincenzo, in an attempt to make amends, granted Monteverdi an increase in salary to 300 scudi a year and a pension for life. To give some rough idea of what that amount of money was worth, a 100,000 scudi seems to have been the annual income of the whole population of a respectable provincial town of around 5,000, or upwards of twice as many peasants.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

It's strange that nobody has mentioned Francesco Cavalli yet. He was a closest successor of Monteverdi and provided to Venetian theaters a bunch of repertoire hits of the time. _La Callisto, Giasone _and _Elena _(which I watched on video) are fine comedies. And _Didone _though is not buffa has a happy ending.


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