Monteverdi: Ballo Delle Ingrate / Combattimento Di Tancredi E Clorinda

Description

Claudia Manteverdi (1567 - 1643) Balla delle ingrate Cambattimenta di Tancredi e Clarinda Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona in 1567, the son of an apothecary and physician who had come to occupy a leading position in his profession in the city. Monteverdi was probably trained as a chorister at the cathedral and was certainly a pupil of the distinguished maestro di cappella Marcantonio Ingegneri, a composer of international reputation. Monteverdi' s first published compositions, sacred music in the spirit of the reforms of the Council of Trent, appeared in 1582, followed in succeeding years by other collections of madrigals and canzonets, sacred and secular. In 1590 or 1591 he entered the service of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua as a string-player, continuing to work in the musical establishment of the Gonzaga court until Duke Vincenzo's death in 1612, from 1601 as maestro di cappella to the court. Among Monteverdi's compositions in Mantua, which include further innovative collections of madrigals in the new style of the period, the dissonances of the modem style giving rise to controversy with more conservative musicians, is the court opera Orfeo, first staged in 1607. With a text by Alessandro Striggio based on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice as recounted by Ovid and by Vergil, Orfeo was a remarkable and significantly successful achievement. It was followed in 1608 by Arianna, a work now lost, except for the very influential lament of Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos. This was reworked by Monteverdi as a five-part madrigal and subsequently published in its original form in a collection of music by various composers. Monteverdi himself, near the end of his life, matched the lament with a sacred text. Duke Vincenzo was succeeded in 1612 by the older of his two sons, Prince Francesco, the initiator of Orfeo, but now, as the ruling Duke, determined to institute various reforms and economies at his court. There had been no reason to suppose that Duke Francesco harboured any ill-will towards Monteverdi but, for whatever reason, he and his brother Giulio Cesare were dismissed from the service of the Gonzagas during the summer of 1612. The two returned to Cremona, while seeking other employment, which Monteverdi found triumphantly in 1613 with his appointment as maestro di cappella at the basilica of San Marco in Venice, a position that brought opportunity and security of tenure. His setting of the Vespers in 1610, with its exploration of the new styles of composition favoured in Venice, would have served as strong support for his candidature. He remained there for the rest of his life, refusing attempts to recall him to Mantua and instituting various reforms at San Marco, particularly in the employment of instrumentalists. It was in Venice in 1637 that the first public opera-house was opened and Monteverdi was able again to contribute to this repertoire. In 1640 his Arianna was revived at the Teatro San Moise, now converte