THE CARNIVAL SHOW
ex. 1-10 Claudio Monteverdi, Orfeo, Chorus (“Ahi caso acerbo”)
In one of the most impressive feats of self-rejuvenation in the history of music, the septuagenarian Monteverdi, bestirred by the institution of public opera theaters, or else offered terms he could not refuse, came out of retirement and composed a final trio of operas for the Teatro SS. Giovanni e Paolo, one of several competitors that quickly sprang up to challenge San Cassiano, the original opera house. The first was Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Ulysses’ Return to His Homeland), after Homer’s Odyssey. The second, now lost, concerned another mythological subject, the wedding of Aeneas. The last was L’incoronazione di Poppea, not a mythological but a historical fantasy based on Tacitus and other Roman historians. The librettist was Giovanni Francesco Busenello, a famous poet who was active in the Accademia degli Incogniti (the Academy of the Disguised), a society of libertines and skeptics who dominated the early Venetian commercial theater and did their best to subvert the values of court theatricals for the greater enjoyment of the paying public.
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Opera from Monteverdi to Monteverdi." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 May. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-01007.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 1 Opera from Monteverdi to Monteverdi. In Oxford University Press, Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 May. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-01007.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Opera from Monteverdi to Monteverdi." In Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 May. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-01007.xml
