“Opera”, Italian plural of “opus” (work), may be said to have begun when the Italian Camerata, meeting in the houses of the Florentine Giovanni de’ Bardi and Jacopo Corsi in the 1580s, began experimenting with music and drama in order to produce a work resembling ancient Greek drama. Of this group, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) emerged with

which was first performed in Mantua in 1607. Later operas by Monteverdi include

(Venice, 1641) and

(Venice, 1642). At the same time, the Venetian Cavalli (1602-1676) was also developing the genre and would go on to compose 40 operas in all, of which

(1649) is now the best known. Cavalli visited Paris in 1660, by which time French opera following an Italian style was catching on,…

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Citation: Tambling, Jeremy. "Opera". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 July 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=794, accessed 26 November 2024.]