Who was Claudio Monteverdi?
• His father was a physician and his mother died when he was ten years old. • Around 1590, Monteverdi played in the orchestra of the duke of Mantua, (Vincenzo Gonzaga), for 21 years. There he was a singer and a violist and later in 1602 he became a music director. • He mixed old and new styles, that brought opera into sacred music. • He wrote the first important opera. Orfeo, produced in Mantua in 1607. In this same year his wife passed away. • In 1612, the duke of Mantua died and Monteverdi went to Venice to spend the rest of his long and productive life. • In 1613 he became a music director for St. Mark’s. He was not primarily a church musician. This was thought to be the most important church position in Italy. • He opened his first public opera houses in 1637. • Wrote many Masses, motets, Vespers and Madrigals. • Created stile concitato (“excited style”) for his instrumental accompaniments. • He wrote many operas but only three of them have survived, Orfeo, The Return of Ulysses, a
