This seminar examines the origins of opera in Italy from the late sixteenth century until the inception of public opera in Venice in 1637. Offered in conjunction with the PU Opera Theater production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (1607) in January 2018, the seminar considers the cultural and intellectual context for Monteverdi’s opera and others produced in Rome, Florence, and Mantua, considering the relevant literary and musical sources, questions of aesthetics, networks of patrons, performance practice, with special attention to the problems of producing baroque opera today.
