The Classical Music Book

63

See also: Le bourgeois gentilhomme 70–71 ■ Dido and Aeneas 72–77 ■

Orfeo ed Euridice 118 –119 ■ The Magic Flute 134 –137 ■ The Barber of Seville 14 8

BAROQUE 1600 –1750

their humanist debates discussions

about the nature of Greek drama,

which they concluded was sung

throughout. Peri wrote La Dafne

(1598) with composer Jacopo Corsi

and poet Ottavio Rinuccini in an

attempt to revive this practice.

Elements of opera

While only fragments of La Dafne

exist today, Peri’s second work,

Euridice, survives intact. The

libretto of Euridice tells the Greek

myth of Orpheus, who enters the

Underworld to retrieve his wife

Eurydice after her death from

snakebite. Euridice offers the

standard intermedio combination

of songs alternating with choruses

and instrumental passages, but

these are linked by recitatives—

the new style of sung speech. In his

preface to the work, Peri described

his intention of “imitating speech

with song,” which was the bedrock

of the new genre. He also listed

some of the instruments played

in the original production, such as

harpsichord, chitarrone (bass lute),

violin, lyre, and lute, although other

instruments may also have been

used. The performance included

sections composed by Peri’s rival

at court, Giulio Caccini, who had

trained several of the singers.

Caccini even made his own

musical setting of the libretto

and had it printed prior to Peri’s.

The publication of these scores

ensured the opera’s survival.

In Peri’s footsteps

The new form represented by

Euridice was repeated in Florence

and emulated elsewhere. In Mantua

in 1607, Claudio Monteverdi, master

of music at the city’s ducal court,

produced L’ O r f e o, which is regarded

as the first operatic masterpiece.

Monteverdi later composed three

further works for the Venetian

opera houses—Il ritorno d’Ulisse

in patria, L’incoronazione di Poppea,

and one now lost—exemplifying

the new style. Soon Monteverdi’s

followers, such as Francesco Cavalli

and Antonio Cesti, were producing

operas in Italy and abroad, with

the basic construction blocks of

recitatives and arias holding the

structure together. ■

Jacopo Peri

Born into a noble family in

1561, Jacopo Peri grew up

in Florence. As a teenager,

he played the organ and

sang at various churches

and monasteries in the city

before beginning a lifelong

association with the Medici

court as singer, accompanist,

and composer. In 1598, he

produced La Dafne, followed

two years later by Euridice

for the wedding festivities of

Maria de’ Medici and Henry IV

of France. Peri also composed

for the musically distinguished

Mantuan court.

Peri often collaborated

with other composers, such as

the brothers Giovanni Battista

da Gagliano and Marco da

Gagliano. While only a small

handful of these works survive

as testament to Peri’s talent,

they nonetheless laid down

the template that later opera

composers would follow.

Peri died in Florence in

1633. His gravestone in the
      Florentine church of Santa
      Maria Novella describes
      him as the inventor of opera.

Other key works

1598 La Dafne

1609 Le varie musiche

Singing his works

composed with the

greatest artifice ... moved

and disposed every stony

heart to tears.

Severo Bonini

It creates a coherent world,

highly charged with a

distinctive atmosphere.

It is simple without being

vapid, and dignified without

being portentous.

Stephen Oliver

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