Birth of Opera and Early Musical Forms
Origins of Opera in Florence
At the end of the 16th century, in Florence, a circle of scholars sponsored by Count Giovanni Bardi created a society called Camerata Fiorentina, aimed at the study and critical discussion of the arts, especially drama and music. On discovering that ancient Greek theatre was sung, they had the idea of setting dramatic texts to music of a profane character, which germinated into opera (opera in musica was the name given to it by the Camerata).
One of the members of the Camerata, the composer Jacopo Peri, created La Dafne (1597), with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini, based on the myth of Apollo and Daphne, with a prologue and six scenes; of this work only the libretto and small fragments of the music have survived. Peri, who was also a singer, played Apollo. This was followed in 1600 by Euridice, by the same authors, the first surviving complete opera on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Giulio Caccini was the author of the first theoretical treatise on the new genre, Le nuove musiche (1602). One of the main novelties of this new form of artistic expression was its secularism, at a time when artistic and musical production was mainly of a religious nature. Another was the appearance of monody, the singing of a single voice, as opposed to medieval and Renaissance polyphony; it was a vocal line accompanied by a basso continuo of harpsichord or lute. Thus, the first operas had parts sung by soloists and parts spoken or declaimed in monody, known as stile rappresentativo.
Monteverdi and the Evolution of Opera
These early experiments were a great success, especially among the nobility: the Medici became patrons of these performances and, from Florence, they spread to the rest of Italy. The Gonzagas of Mantua then commissioned the famous madrigal composer Claudio Monteverdi to write an opera: in 1607 he composed La favola d’Orfeo, with a libretto by Alessandro Striggio, an ambitious work composed for orchestra of forty-three instruments, including two organs, with a prologue and five acts. In this work, libretti were printed for the first time so that the public could follow the performance.
Monteverdi added a musical introduction, which he called a sinfonia, and divided the sung parts into arias, giving structure to modern opera. These arias alternated with the recitative, a musical line that included spoken and sung parts. He also introduced the ritornello, an instrumental verse repeated between the five acts. As for the voices, although he left some parts in polyphony, he differentiated the main solo voices: Orfeo was tenor, Eurydice soprano and Charonte bass.
The birth of the 17th century saw a dramatic change in musical style and Monteverdi’s work was at the forefront of that change. Not everyone welcomed these developments; the outspoken theorist and critic Giovanni Maria Artusi attacked Monteverdi’s music, calling it crude and taking undue licence with pure form and counterpoint. He launched his criticism at this particular work, Monteverdi’s madrigal Cruda Amarilli.
Prima Prattica vs. Seconda Prattica
Monteverdi responded in the introduction to his fifth book of madrigals in 1605. There he presented a proposal to divide the music into two distinct styles, prima prattica and seconda prattica. Monteverdi defined the prima prattica, or first practice, as the perfection of 16th-century counterpoint, following the rules and forms that made Palestrina’s music so successful. This was the music of the divine.
However, Monteverdi desired the freedom to express his humanity within his music, which means imperfection. His seconda prattica, or second practice, allows these rules of counterpoint and melody to be broken if drama, emotion or (more often) text demand it. This gave the composer the freedom to make the music dissonant or ugly if necessary to express what he wished. It was the development of this second practice that gave rise to the era of music we call baroque.
The Rise of French Court Ballet
In France from the 15th century onwards, there was a taste for lavish parties and glittering spectacles (parades of floats, arrivals of Sovereigns) and above all dances which were interspersed with events such as the intermezzos at the Burgundian court, masquerades and tournaments. Under the influence of the Italian wars, in which Charles VIII, Louis XII and François I took part, the genre evolved and became richer. French poets and Italian choreographers collaborated to create a dramatic action, expressed in a sung text accompanied by the orchestra and interspersed with the dances that make up the show.
The staging is sumptuous and spectacular, often using even machines and animated scenery to enhance the splendour of the performances. This partly danced musical form is called Ballet de Cour (court ballet), which is a kind of opera ballet or comedy ballet.