Claudio Monteverdi is undoubtedly the central figure of Italian opera in the 17th century, the most prominent representative of Italian music. He plays the true role in history of the creator of musical drama - in this sense, it was he who laid the foundation for the long evolution of the genre in Western Europe. For Monteverdi, opera was by no means the only area of creativity: he came to it as a mature musician with extensive experience, mastering the great tradition of the 16th century and transforming traditional techniques and means of expression in subordination to new creative tasks. The greatest innovator of his time, he, like no other Italian opera master, is organically connected with creative heritage Renaissance. Throughout his long career, from his early works (motets, canzonettas and madrigals), published in 1582-1587, to his last opera (The Coronation of Poppea), staged in 1642, Monteverdi moved forward boldly and tirelessly. The real revelation was, after the experiments of the Florentines, his first “favola in musica” “Orpheus” (1607). And the discovery that was completely unexpected by contemporaries turned out to be the last opera, “The Coronation of Poppea.” Monteverdi alone achieved more in his field than many other musicians of his time. His work represents a certain stage in the history of opera, more important and significant than the entire creative school (Florentine, Roman).
Monteverdi's achievements in opera are manifold: the dramatization of the genre, its transformation from a pastoral fairy tale into drama, are inextricably linked with the broad development of its musical forms, its musical language. It is even difficult to say that he subordinates music to the tasks of drama: both are essentially inseparable, for the dramaturgy of opera first of all becomes musical dramaturgy for him.
Monteverdi mastered, multiplied and transformed all contemporary means of operatic expression - from the melodious declamation of the Florentines to the buffoonish patter of the Romans - in his incomparably richer and more complex operatic writing. Unlike the Florentines, he did not struggle at all with traditional polyphony strict style. He was fluent in polyphonic technique, created many polyphonic vocal works before turning to opera, and subsequently never abandoned the use of polyphonic techniques, although he boldly updated them. The creative experiences of the Florentines should have interested him; he, apparently, was even carried away by their ideas, but he immediately approached the tasks of “dramma per musica” in a highly independent manner. And then Monteverdi advanced so far from the first stage in the development of the opera genre to his last works that the activity of the Florentine camerata seems from such a distance to be just naive, experimental, preparatory.
The historical significance of Monteverdi is not limited to his operatic activities: his services in general are invaluable in the development of the musical art of his era, in achieving new figurative possibilities up to the embodiment of the tragic in music. Unlike other opera composers of his time, Monteverdi attached great expressive meaning to the instrumental principle, expanding its role in vocal compositions to the utmost extent for that time. At the same time, the composer was invariably attracted to music with words, be it opera, madrigal, canzonetta, motet, etc. And although Monteverdi’s range of images in music with text is very wide, dramatic images and emotions remain the most important for the author. The composer himself was fully aware of this. He was smart, thoughtful, creatively focused. His aesthetic beliefs did not come from outside, but were developed in the process of creative practice. Monteverdi considered himself the creator of a new style “concitato” (“excited”, “excited”, that is, expressive) and believed that before him music remained only “soft” or “moderate”, and therefore limited in its capabilities.
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi was born in Cremona, the son of a doctor, around May 15, 1567. He received his musical education under the guidance of Marco Antonio Ingenieri, who was then at the head of the chapel of the Cremona Cathedral. The author of masses, motets and madrigals, the teacher of the young Monteverdi represented the classical tradition of choral music from the times of Palestrina and Orlando Lasso, which he passed on to his student, V. early years Monteverdi began playing the organ and string instruments (viola), and possibly also sang in the church choir. His creative abilities manifested themselves early. In 1582, a collection of Monteverdi’s motets entitled “Spiritual Tunes” was already published: the author was only 15 years old. In 1583 he published a book of Spiritual Madrigals, and a year later a collection of three-part canzonettas. These publications, one after another, suggest that the young composer began composing much earlier, perhaps at the age of 10-12. The choice of genres at first is apparently connected with the school that Monteverdi went through.
In 1587, Monteverdi's first book of madrigals was published, in which the features of his individuality already appeared. Soon the composer decided to leave Cremona in search of a wider field of activity and went to Milan in 1589. However, there his hopes did not come true. The young composer was looking for independence, worthy use of the forces that he could not help but feel within himself. The possibilities of Cremona became narrow for him, and work in the church, on spiritual works, apparently no longer satisfied him. Monteverdi's second book of madrigals appeared in 1590. It testifies to the first achievement of creative maturity and wins the author serious recognition; he is elected a member of the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome.
In the 1590s, Monteverdi began working at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga in Mantua. From 1592 he became the court violinist, and from 1602 - the head of the Gonzaga music chapel: his duties included everything related to the daily musical life of the court (plays, concerts, music in church), and everything connected with the musical side of the magnificent courtiers festivities In 1599, Monteverdi married the young singer Claudia Cattaneo, and in 1601 his first son, Francesco, was born.
At the Mantuan court, rich, luxurious and noisy, Monteverdi could come into contact with the major artistic forces of his time, meet Tasso, and later Rubens. The Duke of Gonzaga attracted Peri, Galliano, and Rinuccini to Mantua. Monteverdi communicated with composers Lodovico Viadana, Benedetto Pallavicino, Giovanni Gastoldi, Solomon Rossi, with outstanding singers Francesco Rasi, Settimia and Francesca Caccini, Virginia Andreini, Adriana Basile. Vincenzo Gonzaga erected in Mantua new theater, in which not only local singers performed, but also the strongest performers invited from other cities. Accompanying the Duke on his campaigns and travels along with his extensive retinue, Monteverdi was able to see and hear a lot outside of Italy. In 1595, he had the opportunity to visit Innsbruck, Prague, Vienna and stay in Hungary. In 1599, Monteverdi accompanied the Duke on a trip to Flanders (leaving his newly married wife in the care of his father in Cremona). Then they stopped in Trieste, Basel, Spa, Liege, Antwerp and Brussels. Monteverdi became well acquainted with the latest French music - vocal and ballet. In Antwerp, travelers visited Rubens' workshop.
In Mantua itself, at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, samples were already known latest music- both French (the Duke wrote out the notes) and Italian, that is, monody with accompaniment. Vincenzo Gonzaga was aware of what was happening in Florence: he was among the guests present at the gala performance of 1589, when interludes with music were performed; He was also present at the performance of Peri's Eurydice at the Pitti Palace in 1600. A new, barely born kind of performances with music attracted the attention of the Duke of Mantua, who intended to start something similar in his theater. A few years later, Monteverdi's Orpheus was staged in Mantua.
Orpheus was apparently composed in 1606, and the first production took place on February 22, 1607. At first, Monteverdi's opera was performed in a relatively narrow circle of the Academy of the Enchanted (Accademia degl "Invaghiti) in Mantua and received complete approval. Then it was repeated at the Gonzaga court for a wider audience. The main role was performed by the singer Giovanni Gualberto, who was discharged from Florence for this purpose. Success " Orpheus" turned out to be outstanding, rare for that time. Monteverdi's opera was soon staged in Turin and in other cities, and performed in a concert in Cremona. Its entire score was published twice - in 1609 and 1615, which is completely unusual for Italian opera works of the 17th century. remained, as a rule, in manuscripts.
The year 1607, a great date in Monteverdi’s work and in the history of opera, also brought terrible misfortune to the composer: his young wife died in Cremona, leaving behind two young sons. Monteverdi was heartbroken, deeply depressed and avoided returning to Mantua. When he was forced to return to his duties, work at the Gonzaga court turned out to be completely exhausting for him - especially in connection with the preparation of magnificent carnival festivities for the spring of 1608. True, the composition of a new opera (“Ariadne” to a text by Rinuccini) could not help but captivate the composer, but the extraordinary haste required the exertion of all mental strength. Then followed long and complex rehearsals. A new blow for Monteverdi was the death of the leading actress, young Catarina Martinelli, whom he himself had trained since childhood and prepared for the performance.
Ariadne was staged in May 1608. The performance was a huge success with a large audience, Monteverdi's music made a stunning impression, and “Ariadne's Complaint” - the central scene of the opera - gained rapid and universal popularity. It is this “Complaint” that remains the only fragment of the score that has come down to us: the manuscript of “Ariadne” is irretrievably lost, while “Ariadne’s Complaint” has been preserved in a number of original editions and in numerous transcriptions.
For the same spring carnival festivities, Monteverdi wrote “Ballet of the Ingrates” for a magnificent court performance, which combined solo singing, choirs and instrumental fragments, partly for dance purposes.
Until 1612 Monteverdi remained in the service of the Gonzaga court. For more than twenty years the composer was associated with Mantua. The brilliant artistic environment, the possibilities of creative work in the circle of numerous skilled and partly first-class musicians, the possibility of performing stage works in the ambiance of a rich and extensive palace theater in the presence of many experts and a wide audience - all this could not help but attract Monteverdi in Mantua. the responsibilities exceeded the strength of any hardy man. And Monteverdi had to compose a lot of music for court festivities and could not evade such demands. At the same time, he served as conductor and worked with singers; played the viol, conducted all kinds of rehearsals in preparation for concerts and performances, especially intense on the eve of the carnival seasons. When Monteverdi settled in Mantua, he was a young composer receiving his first recognition. After the productions of "Orpheus" and "Ariadne" he became a renowned artist who had no equal in Italy at that time.
Nevertheless, throughout the entire Mantuan period of his activity, Monteverdi was in an extremely cramped and dependent position, was not free in his actions (even if it concerned his personal life), was constantly in need, turning to his father for help, sometimes went completely bankrupt and never could get rid of the oppression of everyday financial worries. In difficult times for himself, he had to send his wife and then his children to Cremona to see their father. The serious illness of his wife at the end of 1606 prompted Monteverdi to move his family to Cremona, where his wife died in September 1607. In Mantua Monteverdi received very modest remuneration for his labors, and this remained in full force when he achieved fame and universal recognition. And sometimes the composer could not even get these pennies without humiliating reminders. “I had to go to the treasurer every day,” Monteverdi later said, “and beg him for money that rightfully belonged to me. God knows, never in my life have I experienced greater spiritual humiliation than on those occasions when I had to wait in his hallway.”* (* Quoted from the book: Konen V. Claudio Monteverdi, M., 1971, p. 52).. Meanwhile, Monteverdi had a keen sense of self-esteem, was proud as an artist, endured humiliation through force and could never forget about it. Repeatedly he asked the Duke to let him go, but Gonzaga, who was despotically powerful and did not know leniency, did not want to listen to him. Liberation came suddenly and no longer depended on the composer. In 1612, Vincenzo Gonzaga died, and his heir decided to release Claudio Monteverdi and his brother Giulio (who also served in the duke’s chapel) from work at the court, which he did with speed and complete unceremoniousness.
After a number of attempts, the largest composer of Italy found a place for himself in Venice, where he settled in 1613.
The Republic of Venice invited him to the honorary position of head of the chapel in the Cathedral of St. Brand. Much has changed in Monteverdi's life and responsibilities. Instead of a dependent position, a court servant, he gained the advantages of the first musician in the republic, the head of the best musical group, highly authoritative, with the best traditions. Instead of numerous responsibilities in Gonzaga's service, work focused on very specific tasks. And if Monteverdi, perhaps, was sometimes burdened by the need to write a lot of music for church holidays, he also found time to create large secular works, and most importantly, he felt much more free and independent in all respects, without experiencing financial difficulties, as in bygone Mantuan years.
The social life of Venice was, as you know, lively, colorful, and open. The Venice school of music was famous for its concert and coloristic achievements even in sacred genres. Church services and processions were distinguished by pomp and were crowded. In the houses of the nobility, rich celebrations with music were held, and musical performances were staged. While there was no opera house, Monteverdi had the opportunity, for example, to stage the scene “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda” (1624) and the musical drama “The Kidnapped Proserpina” (1630) in the house of the noble Venetian philanthropist Girolamo Mocenigo. Among other things, the composer received orders to compose operas and other stage works for other cities - most of all Mantua, as well as Parma and Bologna.
Monteverdi's relations with Mantua were not interrupted after his move to Venice, although they acquired a very peculiar character. From 1615 to 1627, the composer composed the ballet Thyrsis and Chlore for the Mantuan court, a number of interludes (in particular, for Tasso’s pastoral Aminta), and worked on the operas Andromeda and The Imaginary Madwoman. Monteverdi's friendly correspondence with the poet Alessandro Strigio lasted until 1634, which preserved both the most valuable details about the composer's creative plans, his views on art, and some other biographical information. Monteverdi was repeatedly invited to serve the Dukes of Gonzaga. The firmness with which he rejected all attempts to return him to Mantua is amazing. His response letters, outwardly respectful, but full of dignity, are not devoid of sarcasm. When he was tempted by money and land, he allowed himself to notice that he had not been paid for his endlessly tedious work in the past, and therefore there was no point in promising what had already been earned for a long time! No matter how much the composer was attracted to the musical and theatrical environment of Mantua, the caustic bitterness from the living and working conditions at the Gonzaga court remained with him almost forever.
From 1630 to 1639 Monteverdi apparently wrote no operas. He was going through a difficult time then. In 1627 he younger son, a physician, fell into the hands of the Inquisition for reading forbidden books. With great difficulty, Monteverdi achieved his release. In 1630, a plague epidemic broke out in Venice. One of Monteverdi's sons, possibly the eldest, a musician, died. The relief from the plague at the end of 1631 was celebrated with the performance of a thanksgiving mass written by Monteverdi. After the plague and in connection with other alarming external events, Venice seemed to calm down for a number of years and its artistic life lost its usual intensity. Monteverdi takes holy orders. His correspondence with Mantua is interrupted.
It is unlikely that the composer could then foresee that a new creative upsurge awaited him, that unprecedented prospects would open up before him... Since 1637, public opera houses began to exist in Venice on a commercial basis. This was truly a new page in cultural life: everyone who bought a ticket got into the theater. The first of these theaters, San Cassiano, opened in 1637. A few years later there were already four of them in the city, and subsequently even more. The names of the theaters were given according to church parishes: San Cassiano, San Giovanni e Paolo, San Mose, San Giovanni Crisostomo, etc. The opera houses were maintained by wealthy Venetian patricians from the families of Grimani, Vendramin and others. In 1639, Monteverdi received an order for the Teatro San Giovanni e Paolo for the opera Adonis (based on the poem by Marino, text by P. Vendramin). That same year, his Ariadne was staged in Venice. Unfortunately, the music of “Adonis” has not been preserved. In 1640, a new opera was staged. Monteverdi “The Return of Ulysses to His Homeland” (text by G. Badoaro based on the “Odyssey”), originally written for Bologna. We can already judge about it from the surviving materials. A year later, the opera “The Wedding of Aeneas and Lasinia” (also based on a text by Badoaro) was performed in Venice; all that remains is the libretto with notes by Monteverdi. Finally, in 1642, performances of Monteverdi's last opera, The Coronation of Poppea (to a text by Francesco Busenello based on the Annals of Tacitus), were performed, which, at a new stage in the development of the genre, was at least as innovative as Orpheus at the time of its birth. The very historical conditions in which this work took shape and appeared in the theater were profoundly different from the original environment in which Italian opera developed.
After the premiere of The Coronation of Poppea, the composer lived only a year. Shortly before his death, he was drawn to his old places and visited Cremona and Mantua. On November 29, 1643, Monteverdi died in Venice at the seventy-seventh year of his life.
Much of Monteverdi's creative heritage has not reached us. Only a small fraction of his works for the theater are known. At least seven operas (between 1608 and 1641) are lost in manuscript. It is possible that among the composer’s other unpreserved stage works there were also works in the operatic genre - this is not entirely clear. One way or another, we have extremely limited material and can only compare Monteverdi’s first opera with two of the last. The music of ballets, interludes, and divertissements is also far from completely preserved. Most of the spiritual works have been lost. And only Monteverdi's madrigals are represented in his legacy the best way. Eight books of madrigals published between 1587 and 1638 contain 186 works. If we add to this a few new things in the posthumous collection and remember the lost cycle of 1627, then we must think that Monteverdi created only about two hundred secular madrigals.
Monteverdi worked on the madrigal for more than twenty years before turning to opera. For another twenty years he studied madrigal in parallel with opera. From the first madrigals to the last, a huge path has been traveled, which to a certain extent brought this genre closer, if not necessarily to opera, then to stage works. Remaining the most important spheres of creativity, opera and madrigal in Monteverdi are at the same time interconnected and retain something specific in their genre. This is extremely significant precisely for such an artist as Monteverdi was: moving forward more boldly than his contemporaries, he gained a deeper knowledge of the past and developed its traditions; While creating a musical drama, he did not abandon the madrigal and, despite all his innovation, did not neglect the madrigal-polyphonic origins. The “connection of times” is especially strong in his work.
The first three books of madrigals by Monteverdi (1587-1592) appeared in the “pre-opera” period and immediately showed how fluent the young composer was in the madrigal tradition of the 16th century and how his own individuality consistently manifested itself from collection to collection. Already in the second book, Monteverdi becomes a master, and his contemporaries recognize him as such. The choice of expressive means in the third book of madrigals turns out to be even wider - due to increased drama or subtle poeticization of the lyrics. Here Monteverdi finds support in the most expressive stanzas of Tasso's "Jerusalem Liberated" or Guarini's pastorally colored lyrics. The composer approaches vocal polyphony more freely - both melodic (declamation, wide leaps, melismas) and harmony, sometimes harsh to the point of dissonance, if the nature of the image requires it. The third book was created not just by a master, but by a daring master. This is how it was perceived by contemporaries.
Although Monteverdi's subsequent books of madrigals had not yet been published in 1600, some of these new works had already been performed and had become famous among musicians. Therefore, Giovanni Artusi, a contrapuntal theorist from Bologna, was already able to attack the composer about not only his published madrigals, but also those that were later included in the fourth and fifth books. Two parts of Artusi's polemical treatise “On the Imperfection of Modern Music” were published in 1600-1603. According to the tradition of the 16th century, the author chose the form of dialogue: two interlocutors talk about modern music and come to the conclusion that she is heading towards destruction, as evidenced especially by Monteverdi’s madrigals. Artusi struggled primarily with the violation of Monteverdi's rules, that is, with his harmonic boldness - dissonances, including unprepared ones. In his opinion, the music of this composer “torts the ear instead of enchanting it”: (it’s amazing that exactly the same reproaches were addressed to Gluck the reformer by traditionalists in Paris in the 1770s!), and the “new practice” of modern masters is generally scandalous.
Monteverdi responded very succinctly to criticism in the fifth book of his madrigals (1605). He made it clear that he took a position opposite to that taken by Artusi, and promised to further publish the “Second Practice, or the Perfection of Modern Music” as an objection to his treatise. Monteverdi defined the meaning of his objection as follows: “Others may be surprised by the existence of another method of composition other than that taught by Zarlino. But let them be assured that in regard to consonance and dissonance there are higher considerations than those contained in the rules of the school, and these considerations are justified by the satisfaction which music gives both to the ear and to the common sense. [...] Those with a penchant for innovation can seek new harmonies and be confident that the modern composer builds his compositions based on truth." (Quoted from the book: Musical aesthetics of Western Europe in the 17th-18th centuries, p. 89).
Two years later, in the collection “Scherzi musicali” an “Explanation of the letter published in the fifth book of madrigals” appeared: at the request of Monteverdi, his brother Giulio clarified and specified what exactly should be meant by the words “first practice” and “second practice”. The “First Practice” is represented by the polyphonists Ockeghem, Josquin Despres, Pierre de La Rue, Mouton, Gombert, Clemens-ne-Pope, Willaert and Zarlino. The “second practice” is associated with the names of Cipriano da Pope, Ingenieri, Marenzio, Ludzaski, Peri and Caccini (that is, with the generation of innovators in the madrigal genre and the creators of a new style of accompanied monody). In modern times, the meaning of the word for music has become different: music is created not in subordination to traditional norms, but depending on what the poetic text requires of it. From the above it is clear that Monteverdi classifies his work as a “second practice”. At the same time, his brother in the “Explanation” argued that the composer pays tribute to both schools - the old and the new. Since all this was written on the direct instructions of Monteverdi, one must think that he fully shared the opinion expressed.
The fourth and fifth books of madrigals (1603, 1605) stand at the turning point from the 16th century to the 17th. In them, it would seem, everything that is possible is extracted from the a cappella vocal style and a transition is made to a vocal ensemble accompanied by basso continuo. This occurs precisely in parallel with the search for a new style in the Florentine Camerata. For himself, Monteverdi is already on the threshold of opera. But this does not mean that he renounces the heritage of the 16th century. Of the 39 madrigals in the two books, only the last 6 are written for voice with instrumental accompaniment. Most often Monteverdi turns to the poetry of Guarini. The choice of texts is dominated by love lyrics (which are especially dramatized in the madrigals of the fifth book), and the circle of emotions characteristic of the complaint, which later became so firmly established in operatic dramaturgy, almost comes to the fore.
The sixth book of madrigals (1614) arose at a different stage in Monteverdi’s creative life: after the creation of the first operas, as a result of the entire Mantuan period. Tragic images and emotions prevail here; Marino is especially singled out among the poets. The large five-voice madrigal “Ariadne’s Complaint” is directly related to the opera theme and, in principle, another madrigal “A Lover’s Lament over the Grave of his Beloved” is similar. And yet these two lamentos still retain the special appearance of the madrigal as an a cappella vocal ensemble. Thus, on the theme of the famous aria, Monteverdi created in this case a larger-scale work, expanding the small da capo form, highlighting the middle part with its dramatic culmination on a sharply dissonant chord and enriching the overall sound with polyphonic means. As for the group of madrigals based on Marino’s texts, they were written in the new style of “concertato”, or “concert dialogue” (the seven-voice madrigal “By the Quiet River”). The departure from the a cappella style is expressed primarily in the independence and even opposition of vocal and instrumental parts, as well as in the isolation of solos from the ensemble. At the same time, the form of the whole departs from end-to-end development and consists of several sections, like a multi-part canzone.
These trends clearly intensify and win in the seventh book of madrigals (1619), created in Venice and published under the title “Concert. The seventh book of madrigals for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 voices and other vocal works." Some examples here are close to early examples of monody with accompaniment, others are similar to Monteverdi’s opera arias (“I will tune the zither”), and thirdly, the expressive and figurative role of the instrumental ensemble is unprecedentedly enhanced. Along with madrigals, the book also includes canzonettas and even “Tyrsis and Chlora” - “a ballet in concert style for five voices and instruments.”
The last, eighth book of madrigals appeared only in 1638. The composer gave this large collection the title “Warlike and Love Madrigals” and provided it with a programmatic preface. In addition to madrigals of various types and characters, the collection includes stage works - the divertissements “Ball” and “Nymph of Istria”, as well as “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda”. In the preface, Monteverdi explains why he called madrigals “militant” and how this relates to his creative principles and intentions. Even when creating Ariadne's Complaint, he thought, in his words, about the way to most naturally convey emotions in music. He couldn't find the answer in any book. I read the work of Vincenzo Galilei a long time ago. Studied the best philosophers who observed nature. And he learned from them more useful knowledge than was given to him by the theorists of the old school, who dealt only with the laws of harmony.
“I am convinced,” concludes Monteverdi, “that our soul in its manifestations has three main feelings or passions: anger, moderation and humility or prayer. This has been established by the best philosophers and is proven by the very nature of our voice [...] These three gradations are precisely manifested in the art of music in three styles: excited (concitato), soft (molle) - and moderate (temperate). In all the works of ancient composers I found examples of moderate and soft styles and nowhere did I encounter examples of an excited style, although it is described by Plato in his “Rhetoric” in the following words: “Choose that harmony that corresponds to the voice of a warrior cheerfully going to battle.” (* Quoted from the book: Musical aesthetics of Western Europe in the 17th-18th centuries).. Monteverdi goes on to describe how he looked for concitato techniques to convey excited speech, and found that playing instruments in a certain rhythm and repeating the same notes (that is, tremolo and pizzicato strings, for example) created the desired impression. To prove this, he “seized upon the divine Tasso” and wrote “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda,” hoping to express contrasting feelings: belligerence, supplication and death. The goal was achieved: the work was listened to with approval and praise.
As is clear from the contents of the eighth book of madrigals, the composer understands the definition of “militant” broadly and connects it with the dramatic tension of feelings, with their rise, with the excitement of struggle (concitato!), not limiting itself to the military theme itself. The madrigals here are varied in their general appearance: some are more intimate, others are distinguished by the power of choral sound accompanied by instruments. At the same time, Monteverdi now does not often resort to harmonic aggravations and achieves great simplicity and balance of sounds. It would seem that something more strict and objective is included even in love complaints, lamento. Such, for example, is the famous “Complaint of the Nymph,” strict, restrained and all the more powerful in its embodiment of grief. Monteverdi does not even resort to accompanied monody here: the madrigal is written for soprano, two tenors and bass, accompanied by continuo. The whole thing is not so close to the operatic aria lamento or even to a love complaint in general. From here the path goes rather to other, tragic images, such as Seneca in Monteverdi’s last opera.
There is no doubt that in a long chain of madrigals, as in creative laboratory Monteverdi, a lot has developed, prepared, matured for opera or for stage genres in general. At the same time, the composer constantly felt the need to return specifically to the madrigal - and not only the newest, concert madrigal, but the madrigal as a vocal ensemble of the polyphonic tradition. The expressive possibilities of this genre, very flexible and at the same time more ascetic than opera or cantata, strong in its lyricism or drama and yet more objective in the expression of feelings than an operatic aria, were dear to Monteverdi and corresponded to certain properties of his character and his talents.
In addition to madrigals, Monteverdi wrote a number of canzonettas - simpler and more everyday three-voice vocal works (collection “Canzonette a tre voci”, 1584). He also owns many spiritual works (mass, motets, madrigals, psalms, Magnificat), in which he also manifested character traits his creativity is rich in images and depth of emotions.
Knowing barely a third of Monteverdi's operatic works (and perhaps even less), we still perceive his operatic work as unique. He did not join any opera school and did not give rise to epigones. If only his Orpheus had been known, Monteverdi's position would have remained exceptional at the beginning of the 17th century. The Coronation of Poppaea alone would suggest that it is exclusively for the mid-century. Both of these works, created by the same author, mark extreme points a creative path that truly had no analogues in those days.
When Monteverdi created Orpheus, the spiritual atmosphere of the Florentine camerata was still well remembered, and the creators of the “stile nuovo” and the first “dramas on music” attracted the keen interest of their contemporaries. The aesthetic ideas of the camerata were close to Monteverdi, as is clear from his subsequent statements. However, he embodied these post-Renaissance creative aspirations much more deeply, consistently and powerfully than Peri and Caccini did. Even repeating their plot in “Orpheus,” he interpreted it differently and created not a pastoral fairy tale, but a humanistic drama. Rinuccini's poetic text apparently did not satisfy him. He collaborated with another poet, Alessandro Strigio, the son of a famous Mantuan composer. He planned the play into five acts with a prologue: the first act is pastoral (the celebration of the wedding of Orpheus and Eurydice), the second act is the news of the death of Eurydice, invading the pastoral, the third is Orpheus in the underworld, the fourth is the finding of Eurydice and the final separation from her, fifth - the despair of Orpheus and the appearance of Apollo, dragging him to Olympus (apotheosis). In the prologue and apotheosis (the duet of Orpheus and Apollo), the great power of art is glorified. As we can see, here too the original beginning of the genre is pastoral. Although the tragic denouement of the personal drama is preserved this time, the solemn apotheosis softens and “covers” it: the performance was prepared for court festivities. Monteverdi did not seek to weaken the pastoral elements of the work, nor did he shy away from the “apotheosis” of the finale. Both of these only set off the drama itself, and it acted even more powerfully. At the same time, Monteverdi especially deepened the emotional expression of Orpheus’ drama and breathed the spirit of tragedy into its main collisions.
All this is achieved by music, its means of expression, its compositional techniques, the entire system of musical-figurative movement within a large, detailed composition. Monteverdi was always inspired by human drama in any subject, no matter where it came from. In 1616, when the composer received the text of “The Wedding of Thetis and Peleus” through the same Strigio and thought that he was being offered to write an opera, he expressed his doubts in a famous response letter. Referring to the participation of numerous Cupids, Zephyrs, and Sirens in the play, he wrote: “We must not forget that the Winds, that is, Zephyrs and Boreas, must sing, but how can I, dear Signor, imitate the speech of the Winds when they do not speak! And how can I touch the listener with these means! Ariadne touches because it was a woman, and Orpheus because it was a man, not the Wind. [...] Ariadne brought me to tears, Orpheus made me pray, and this myth... I really don’t know what its purpose is? How does Your Grace want music to make something out of him? (* Quoted from the book: Musical aesthetics of Western Europe XVII-XVIIIcenturies, p. 90-91). It was precisely this attitude towards man and his dramatic fate that prompted Monteverdi to turn a pastoral play and a court performance into a musical drama.
The range of expressive means in the music of Orpheus is unusually wide and rich. There is probably nothing that was used then or could be used in the practice of composing vocal and instrumental music that would not be included in Monteverdi’s score. Monteverdi's vocal writing is amazingly diverse. The experience of the madrigalist, who generally left his mark on the score of Orpheus, also affected the relationship between the poetic text and music. The Soviet researcher convincingly shows what variety of techniques was required in his time by the composer “in his persistent search for the madrigal technique, capable of reflecting both the expressiveness of individual characteristic poetic turns and the general mood of the verse set to music. It is to these expressive techniques that the structure of speech in Monteverdi’s first drama goes back.”* (* Konen V. Claudio Monteverdi, p. 193).
Depending on the emerging dramatic tasks, Monteverdi turns to melodious declamation (enriching it intonationally and harmoniously), to song melody (canzonetta), to developed, brilliant ariosity, to polyphonic and homophonic choral structure, to danceability, to various types of instrumental presentation. The singer is required to have both expressive musical speech and true virtuosity. Freely constructed monologues (in fact, having their own dramatic integrity), small closed arias, the central aria-prayer of Orpheus in the third act, the brilliant duet of Orpheus and Apollo - everything here is flexible, everything is at the same time free and harmonious.
The instrumental composition of the Orpheus score cannot be identified with the later concept of an opera orchestra. From a huge number of timbres, the composer constantly selects only those that are needed for a given moment, a given situation; its colors are differentiated and its coloring is sensitively changeable. The listing of tools does not mean their unity, but only provides a possible choice. In "Orpheus" there are: two cymbals, two double basses, ten viols da braccio, a harp, two violins, three theorbos, two organs with flute pipes, three bass viols, five trombones, a regal, two cornets, two flutes, a clarinet and three trumpets with mutes. All these instruments were combined only in very rare cases; as a rule, ensembles stood out from them, for example: two violins or two flutes with a cymbal and bass lutes, three viols and a double bass with the same instruments; viols, bass viols, double bass and organ, etc. In the accompaniment part, Monteverdi often writes out not only basso continuo, but also melodies of concert instruments. In principle, instrumental colors were just as important for the composer and just as differentiated for him as melodic and harmonic means of expression.
The author of “Orpheus” shows great care about the musical unity of the work as a whole and in individual parts: accurate and varied repetitions of material, grouping solos and choirs into integral scenes, the da capo principle, strophic variation - all this serves to consolidate the composition into a single artistic organism.
Orpheus does not yet have an overture in the future sense of the word. The performance opens with a small instrumental piece, which for some reason is called a toccata, although it is rather an extended invocation of a fanfare style: its music is simple, the harmonic basis is static (C major triad), brass instruments sound, then tutti, marching-signal sounds appear in the upper voice elements. Essentially, this is not the opera itself, but only a call to attention, an “announcement” about the beginning of the performance. A different meaning is given to the ritornello that follows the intrada, which is a kind of leittheme of the opera. He frames the stanzas of Music, which acts as an allegorical figure in the prologue, and then returns later in the further course of the action. The calm, balanced, soft sound, the smoothness of the almost choral five-voice, the ostinato movement in the bass, the harmony of the whole create the impression of harmony in the first place. Later, Monteverdi does not repeat this ritornello literally, but varies it polyphonically: the same upper voices are layered on the bass, but changing places (complex counterpoint). This may equally be the theme of Orpheus and the allegory of Music, for this is what the legendary singer represents. Let us note in passing that the ritornello is close to the then traditional a cappella choral structure, and the implementation of the principle of complex counterpoint in it further deepens this connection with the 16th century.
The action of "Orpheus" unfolds widely and slowly. The general musical concept of the work cannot be defined as entirely tragic. There is too much of the pastoral in it, a large place is occupied by bright idyllic scenes in the first and second acts, the “Apollonian” beginning in the image of the legendary singer is clearly highlighted (the central solo in the third act, a duet with Apollo). Tragic tension does not determine the entire course of the drama. It appears in the second act from the moment when the messenger reports the death of Eurydice, in the scene of Orpheus in the third act, in the tragic climax of the fourth act, at the beginning of the fifth (Orpheus’ monologue). And yet the tragedy seems to grow, rise from the framework of the festive performance - this is the main difference between Monteverdi’s “Orpheus” and Peri or Caccini’s “Eurydice”.
In the first act and the beginning of the second, bright joy and jubilation reign, the happiness of love and beautiful nature are glorified. This is actually a pastoral, a wedding celebration in an idyllic pastoral environment. Choirs, small solos, instrumental ritornellos express various shades and gradations of joyful feelings, elation, complete happiness in closeness to nature. Not declamatory, but closed, complete musical forms predominate. The madrigal tradition is often felt in choirs. The poetic chorus of shepherds “Let's leave the hills” can serve as an example of Monteverdi's flexible combination of polyphonic and homophonic choral writing. In some places the music approaches the canzonetta style, for example in the simple and light duet of shepherds in the second act. What especially stands out against this background is the inspired appeal of the happy Orpheus to nature, his small aria, amazingly complete, complete (a stanza in the form of a da capo), nobly simple throughout. In its plastic, modest, (in the range of a sixth) melody, declamatory intonations are consistently sung, which gives the whole a hymnically strict character. According to the meaning of the action, this song of Orpheus should evoke an enthusiastic response from others to the singer’s art. The wider and more fully the festive pastoral scenes unfold, the more acutely the tragic turning point in the action with the appearance of the messenger-nymph is perceived. The entire structure of her speech (as well as the instrumental color of the accompaniment) is sharply different from the music that was just played. Orpheus does not immediately understand what news the nymph brought him, and then interrupts her monologue with cries of despair. With the story of the messenger, the tragic first enters the music of the opera, and the pastoral idyll ends. This story, designed in a new style of musical declamation, seems to be leisurely, devoid of violent manifestations of emotion, as if subdued in its noble intimacy, in flexible intonation details, in unexpected - sometimes sharp, sometimes unsteady - harmonic moves. But the further this sorrowful narrative moves, the more palpable the gentle power of restraint becomes with the steady increase in tension towards the climax (transmission of Eurydice’s dying cry “Orpheus, Orpheus!”), the more touching the lyrical caesuras sound in the mournfully sung, “falling” endings of phrases. The climax-exclamation is highlighted boldly, but not sharply, and then the melody fades, slowly descends and the color darkens... What is striking here is this restraint of tragedy, the almost intimate subtlety in conveying the fatal message. We simultaneously hear the messenger, standing as if above the events and interrupted by exclamations of the tormented Orpheus, and see the tender image of Eurydice.
This unity of tension and restraint, strength of feelings and pure detachment from external drama constitutes the special quality of the tragic in Orpheus. Some musical means here serve to sharpen the image (intonation structure, development of the melody as a whole, harmonic movement), others restrain emotions (slowness of development, measured recitation, subtlety of each stroke), and slow down the drama. The messenger’s story is not dramatic, not loud: it is precisely tragic. His style is generally new to musical art, but Monteverdi does not break with traditions here either: the harmonic expressiveness of the messenger’s story is entirely prepared by the art of the madrigal, in particular by the harmonic composition of the madrigals of Monteverdi himself. In contrast to the later trends of Italian opera with its developed ariosity, in Monteverdi’s story the messenger is not dominated by the principle of a large operatic touch, a close-up, but rather by the chamber principle of the finest melodic and harmonic detailing.
The turning point has taken place. In a mournful arioso, Orpheus says goodbye to the earth, the sky, and the sun. The movement is more measured than in the recitative of the messenger, the harmonies are simpler, and on this basis the chromaticisms in the melody sound with particular sharpness and appear as interruptions in breathing, pauses on the strong beats of the bar.
At the end of the second act, after the choral scene, the instrumental ritornello is reminiscent of the leittheme from the opera's prologue.
At the center of the third act is a large scene of Orpheus, who, in a passionate desire to return Eurydice, turns first to Charon (so that he will transport him across Lethe), then to the gods (so that they give him Eurydice). According to the very idea, Orpheus must defeat the dark forces of Hades with the miraculous power of his art. He performs in this scene as a virtuoso singer, stunning listeners with his vocal skill and at the same time capable of expressing deep feelings in a heartfelt, stern, tragic complaint-pleading, which was able to appease the gods. His large, widely developed aria scene seems to oppose the gloomy coloring of Hades: the singing of Orpheus is accompanied by concert violins, harps and other instruments, the underworld is outlined by a special “symphony” that highlights the heavy sonority of the trombones (not knowing the music of Monteverdi, Gluck sought similar contrasts in this situation).
The Orpheus scene gives the impression of a large vocal monologue in a pathetic improvisational style: this is how the vocal melody develops from the very beginning, and the instruments perform so brilliantly. But in reality this is not just improvisation, but freely varied stanzas, which, however, should give the impression of improvisation. As for vocal virtuosity, it has a special character here and is intended to demonstrate not technique in general, but mainly techniques characteristic of the concitato style. Thus, already in the first stanza, accompanied by two violins, the rather simple melody of Orpheus is “ornamented” in a very unique way: among other things, one sound of the melody falling on a syllable is split into a number of small notes (sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes, etc.), repeated by the voice. Monteverdi subsequently explained these “beats” as one of the signs of the “excited” style in instrumental parts. Apparently, already in Orpheus he found this technique. With each stanza new expressive touches appear. The timbre coloring changes accompanied by: cornets - harp - viol and double bass. From the virtuosity of the first three stanzas, development proceeds to a figurative deepening in the fourth stanza with its more strict melody and “mournful” chromatic accompaniment, and then to an even more “ascetic” fifth stanza, where the plea for Eurydice is expressed in the spirit of a tragic complaint (the strings accompany in low case). The very dynamic line of this monologue is amazing: from complexity and pathos to deepening and strict simplicity, which, after the path traveled, is especially powerful.
The climactic scene of the fourth act is a catastrophe: the final separation of Orpheus from Eurydice. And again, by analogy with the tragic situation in the second act, there is no hint of a violent movement of feelings, of their pathetic expression in a large musical form. Everything is based on musical recitation with chord accompaniment. But the nature of the musical speech, flexible and expressive, as well as the change in color accompanied by the accompaniment, particularly distinguish this scene. Orpheus's speech, before he turns around, violating the ban, moves from excited exclamations to a fast, tense recitation (concitato style!) and ends in its rise with the intonation of a question... Then Orpheus turns to Eurydice - and all is lost. He curses himself and is tormented by reproaches. Heavy, weighty words of the spirit are heard: the fatal prohibition has been violated. There are no special means of musical expression here, only the growing tension of recitation, a question... and a sharp change in color: first accompanied by viols, bass lutes and cymbals; when Orpheus turned around, the instruments fell silent and only the organ in a low register supported his mournful speech.
On the scale of the entire work, this is not yet a denouement. It is included in the fifth act and is no longer connected with the theme of love, but with the theme of art. The action opens with a monologue of lonely Orpheus. Only an echo answers him, picking up his words. This technique has been very popular in music since late XVI century. He enhanced the expressiveness of the phrase, created a special color, delineated the form well and was especially appropriate in scenes of loneliness. Subsequently, Gluck also used it in Orpheus. With the appearance of Apollo, the final apotheosis begins. Orpheus and Apollo perform a large, developed, virtuosic duet of a light, hymnic nature - one of the first operatic ensembles of a brilliant vocal style. The choir glorifies Orpheus. At the end of the opera, a magnificent ballet is performed - moreska with the participation of celestials. This solemn and bright “apotheotic” fifth act seems to correspond to the wide-open, bright pastoral scenes of the first act.
Thus, within the framework of a large five-act work, festive, pastoral and closed musical forms occupy a very large place. As for the tragic collisions themselves, they receive a much more strict, intimate and at the same time detailed and declamatory expression, as if the grand operatic plan is being replaced by another, requiring close and sensitive listening to every intonation. Only in the monologues of Orpheus himself are his sorrowful feelings and fiery prayer expressed in more developed, sometimes even (in the third act) virtuoso forms for their time.
Monteverdi's second opera, Ariadne, is chronologically adjacent to Orpheus and was written for the same festive performance during the carnival period. As the composer himself admitted, he was primarily concerned with the human drama of Ariadne herself. And yet, it probably unfolded as part of a magnificent palace performance with many decorative effects of a divertissement nature. However, it was Ariadne’s complaint, that is, music in a tragic collision, and not anything else that was best remembered by the listeners, deeply captivated them and gained universal popularity. Even in “Orpheus,” which generally made a very strong impression on his contemporaries, there was not a single melody that was so chosen by listeners as their favorite. Thanks to this, it has been preserved - in many editions and treatments. “Ariadne’s Complaint” became the first operatic lamento, a kind of beginning in a chain of strict and emotionally compressed operatic complaints. In it, the composer managed to concentrate what in Orpheus was expressed mainly in the tense recitation of tragic collisions. Declamatory exclamations are sung here and become the basis of a short expressive melody, developing integrally and naturally, in a closed da capo form. "Ariadne's Complaint" in the full sense of the word was born from a tragic recitative, as a generalization and simple musical development its properties. And if listeners usually did not remember or repeat an expressive recitation, no matter how impressive it was, then Ariadne’s aria was immediately adopted by them and widely entered into musical life.
In the course of the action, the sleeping Ariadne was left by Theseus, who kidnapped her, on the island to which they sailed. When she woke up, she became desperate and threw herself into the sea. Local fishermen rescued her. Turning to them, she prays: “Let me die.” Monteverdi later recalled how difficult it was for him to find a way to express the feeling that was embedded in “Ariadne’s Complaint.” After all, the aria was not born of itself from expressive recitation, but was created by the composer as an intonational generalization, and, moreover, based on the ancient traditional folk genre of Italian funeral lament songs with their plaintive cries and exclamations. Hence the amazing organicity, naturalness of lamento in Monteverdi, and then the consistent development of lamento arias in Italian opera as certain type surrounded by other typical images.
Apart from Ariadne's Complaint, everything that Monteverdi wrote for the opera house from 1607 (after Orpheus) to 1640 (before The Return of Ulysses) is completely unknown to us. In parallel with the operas, the composer also created divertissements, interludes, ballets, and other works for the stage. For operas, he clearly preferred ancient mythological plots: “Andromeda” (1620?), “The Kidnapped Proserpina” (1630), “The Wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia” (1641) and others. It is possible that the composer also worked on Armide (1628?). In 1639 he wrote Adonis. Both last works are already associated with new Italian poetry (Tasso, Marino). But exactly how Monteverdi interpreted his plots, what the path was from Orpheus to the later operas, so different from him, is impossible to judge. If even a few statements by the composer in connection with new operatic ideas and the evolution of his madrigal creativity somehow clarify the direction of this path, then the moment of a qualitative turning point on it remains unclear. One might think that the works created on orders from Mantua or for other courts retained elements of representativeness, divertissement, and generally a magnificent, spectacular performance. But the human drama never ceased to capture the composer’s imagination in the first place, as evidenced by his particularly keen interest in 1627 in the plot of “The Imaginary Mad Liquori” (text by B. Strozzi), which made it possible to express in music the rapid change of feelings and even the appearance of an imaginary madman ( he performed either in the role of a man or in the role of a woman) and demanded from the performer the ability to transform and express passion in extreme manifestations. Perhaps already in this opera, twenty years after Orpheus, there was a turning point in a new type of musical drama? No one can know this. Monteverdi completed the score in September 1627, but even its fate is unknown: was the opera staged? It is also possible that the composer’s creative turning point occurred precisely in Venice, in new conditions, in the new spiritual atmosphere of city theatrical life with its openness, breadth, and different emerging tastes of the audience.
However, an artist of Monteverdi’s caliber could, without a doubt, go through a whole period of quest in the genre of musical drama in more than thirty years. Just one example of a small stage work - “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda” - can lead to such an idea. It is no coincidence that the author refers to it when he writes in 1638 about his search for the concitato style. It was an experience of its kind - and, according to Monteverdi, a successful one. Meanwhile, “The Duel” stands apart in the composer’s work and, apparently, does not find a direct continuation.
Monteverdi's music is based on original stanzas from Tasso's poem “Jerusalem Liberated” without any “librettistic” adaptations. The lion's share of the verses falls on the narrator (Testo), who narrates the events, while Tancred and Clorinda depict with movements and gestures everything that is about we're talking about. Testo's recitation is mostly spare, like a recitative, and only occasionally approaches more ariosed singing. The short lines of Tancred and Clorinda, as directed by the composer, should be naturally combined with it. Tasso's poetic text must reach the audience completely and perfectly. The figurative meaning of Tasso's poetry is revealed mainly by the instrumental ensemble (strings, that is, 4 viols, and continuo - cymbal and double bass), which depicts what is happening and expresses the tension of feelings caused by the collision of Tancred and the unrecognized Clorinda (in the armor of a knight). The image that the composer seems to care so much about, conveying through original techniques the tramp of horses, the clanging of swords, the increasing tempo of the fight, the climax of the battle (rapid passages of strings) - this image is at the same time in Monteverdi an expression of anxiety, the growing excitement of the combatants, and drama. contractions. This is why he needed the concitato style: a special character of rhythmic movement, new methods of sound production for strings. As the dramatic tension builds towards the end of the battle, the excitement is transferred to the narrator's party. When Tancred strikes Clorinda and finally recognizes her, dying, the sonority immediately subsides, everything breaks off and only the transparent, enlightened harmonic accompaniment supports last words Clorinda. What genre is this? A dramatized madrigal? But the madrigal is characterized above all by vocal tradition. “The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda” remains an attempt to maximally dramatize the musical transmission of a poetic text outside the conditions of the drama itself. There is no doubt that this original experience of musical and dramatic painting did not pass without a trace for Monteverdi’s operatic dramaturgy.
And yet, on the composer’s creative path after Orpheus, only a few trends emerge, individual strokes of what will determine the style and concepts of his later operas.
“The Return of Ulysses” and “The Coronation of Poppaea” are also written on ancient subjects, drawn in these cases from the “Odyssey” and from the Annals of Tacitus. Monteverdi was quite original: neither before nor after him these subjects were popular among Italian composers. They attracted him not at all with the same features that “Orpheus” could have attracted, and he interpreted them differently: as extensive, “multi-figured” dramas full of movement, with an abundance of collisions and events, with contrasts of the sublime and the prosaic (even buffoonish in “ Return of Ulysses"), high ethics and base motives, with intensity human passions to the point of frenzy, in other words, as life dramas in all their contradictions, and not as ideal ancient legends generalized in myth. This courage and breadth of Monteverdi is amazing - an artist who did not have samples at that time and did not give them for his part to emulate: he was ahead of his time, and historical process By the middle of the century he turned away from the ideals of the Renaissance, which were still effective in Monteverdi’s dramaturgy. Thus, his last operas are essentially unique in 17th-century Italy. They would have been even more unique in the 18th century, when only Mozart achieved the depth and power of vital drama in mature operatic works.
Despite their important general differences from the type of opera represented by Orpheus, The Return of Ulysses and The Coronation of Poppea as musical dramas are by no means similar to each other. This rare ability of the composer for creative movement in his later years allows us to think that it was in Venice that for a few years (from 1637 to 1642) he could search and find his new operatic style and new principles of drama, not yet characteristic of the previous stages of creativity.
The Coronation of Poppea is usually rated higher than The Return of Ulysses, and this is in principle fair: the variety of strong life drama with its contrasts is combined here with greater psychological depth. But “The Return of Ulysses” is also an interesting work, based on an effective drama. Here everything is directed outward, into action, movement, collision, events, and relatively little into the depths of emotion. This opera is more pictorial than expressive, which, however, does not make it any less dynamic. The spirit of adventure lives in it, it glorifies the dexterity, resourcefulness and strength of the hero, his impeccability and fortitude faithful wife Penelope. The action unfolds with many twists and turns, active and noisy. The composer avoids neither naturalistic details nor conventions. The gods intervene in the destinies of people, send them signs from heaven; Neptune is angry with Ulysses, Jupiter and Minerva help him. Penelope's suitors receive expressive comic characterization (even to the point of screams and laughter in Iro's part), especially in the scene of unsuccessful archery. Only Penelope's part is lyrical and serious. Ulysses is, first of all, an active hero, but even in a difficult situation (the Phaeacians sailed, and he woke up alone on the shore), he has an expressive declamatory monologue with characteristic harmonic “wanderings.” When he talks about the storm that overtook him while traveling at sea, the music becomes pictorial. The part of the shepherd Eumetus, devoted to Ulysses, is sometimes unrestrained, if not eccentric (cries of joy). The fanfare aria of the angry Neptune is wide and militant. Minerva's party sparkles with grace. In the part of young Telemacus there is, among other things, a little Arietta. The opera has many ensembles, sometimes complex, virtuosic, with imitations and coloratura passages. In the last act, a heavenly choir (high voices in a strictly chord structure) and a sea choir (low voices) are juxtaposed, which brings to mind the typically baroque apotheoses of Roman operas. The composition of the whole is voluminous, “spacious”, but not at all stretched out. Much in the depiction of characters and situations is characteristic, bold, even daring and sometimes colorful. Monteverdi departs here further than anywhere else from the rigor of style. There is something free, liberated in his understanding of opera with adventures, as if he was inspired not only by the ancient Greeks with their epic, but, perhaps, by Ariosto and the authors of the “picaresque” novels of the 17th century.
"The Coronation of Poppea" is closer to a historical drama with tragicomedy features in its interpretation of the plot. Monteverdi's last opera usually prompts comparisons with Shakespeare's dramas. It is possible that this is an exaggeration. But still, not a single author of operas at that time, except Monteverdi, suggests such comparisons, just as not a single playwright, except Shakespeare, is remembered in connection with Monteverdi’s last opera.
The librettist of The Coronation, Francesco Busenello, although he relied on historical background, but did not strictly adhere to history in the development of the plot and the composition of the characters, and allowed the participation of mythological and allegorical characters. In Monteverdi's opera introduced wide circle very different participants in the drama" passions boil and collide, a complex intrigue is shown with conspiracies, assassinations, cruel revenge, and the lust for power, despotism and treachery are opposed by loyalty, self-sacrifice, stoicism. Neither the strict plot of "Orpheus" nor the pastoral-idyllic beginning of the festive performance predicted anything like this in their time! “Orpheus” appeared as if in some other artistic world, on the aesthetic soil of a different theater. And yet there is something that unites Monteverdi's first and last operas: a human drama that is designed to shake the contemporary listener, no matter how he was in the ducal palace - or in the Venetian public theater.
The characters of the characters are depicted in “The Coronation of Poppea” quite contrastingly, but at the same time not unilinearly. Thus, the love passion of Nero and Poppea is expressed with beautiful brightness, in a brilliant musical form (a scene in the first act, a big duet in the finale), although in the course of the action both appear to be cruel and essentially aggressive ambitious people, and Nero is also rude despot. The roles of Nero and Poppea generally stand out in the opera for their brilliant vocal style. The part of Nero (written for a castrato soprano) is simply virtuoso in places. At the same time, Monteverdi decides to show in it such life details as the stuttering of the enraged Nero (in the scene with Seneca), his rough laughter (in the orgy scene after Seneca’s death), his rage. The noble and suffering heroes are characterized in different tones: Octavia, abandoned by Nero, and Poppea’s faithful husband Otto (his part was written for a castrato-alto). Their parts carry a dramatic, if not tragic, element, expressed mainly in meaningful recitatives or arioso. The majestic part of Seneca (bass) is wide and courageous. A light comedic style emerges in the roles of the young page and the maid, as if shading the drama.
An important feature in the dramaturgy of “Coronation” is the bold juxtaposition of dramatic, even tragic, and genre-comedy episodes: the mournful monologue of Otto (who learned of his wife’s betrayal) and the chatter of the soldiers on guard; the stoic death of Seneca - and the cheerful interlude of the page and the maid. All these are signs of the times: in Roman and early Venetian opera such contrasts were just becoming a custom; at the time of Orpheus they would have been unthinkable. However, in Monteverdi they still have a special character, since they are included in the historical drama as a vital contrast, and are not an entertaining and parody element, as they became among the Venetians.
At the same time, traditional fiction invades the wide-ranging drama with its poetry and prose, cruelty and lyricism, pathos and comedy: Pallas sends Mercury to inform Seneca that the hour of his death has come; Cupid takes the killer's hand away from Poppea; Venus and Cupid seem to sanctify the coronation ceremony of Poppea with their presence. The prologue is also traditionally conventional: Fortune and Virtue argue about which of them is stronger (dialogue and duet); Love reconciles them - true power belongs to love alone. This allegory is related to the development of the drama - but only in the most general way, as with many other plots.
The opera has only three acts, but they are rich in content, each of them contains many scenes, events, and clashes. The very tempo of the dramatic movement is very intense. Let us remember the first act of Orpheus - entirely festive, pastoral and idyllic. In The Coronation of Poppea, the first act is already replete with events, all the main characters collide in it, all the relationships of power are clarified and the further development of the drama is foreshadowed.
As once in “Orpheus,” in Monteverdi’s last opera the range of expressive means is widely expanded in its time; but these means themselves have become in many ways different. The ratio of vocal parts and orchestra, soloists and choir has changed. This is due not only to the author’s intention, but also to the stage conditions in Venice. Public theaters, organized on a commercial basis, did not have such unlimited performing forces as the rich court theater with its own and any invited cadres of artists. It is no coincidence that in operas written for the Venetian stage, everything rests on soloists, and instead of choirs, small ensembles sound. The composition of the orchestra is also modest ( different kinds strings and continuo as the basis, winds as necessary). Monteverdi, so closely associated with the traditions of choral culture, in The Coronation of Poppea could do without large choirs during the course of the drama, and according to the conditions of the theater he had to limit himself. As for the orchestra, we can only imagine in the most general terms what it was like in this case.
The fact is that not the full score of the opera has been preserved, but only a schematic recording of it, only partly autographed. It contains vocal parts and continuo. Some instrumental ritornellos have also been recorded. It is possible that this was just auxiliary material for rehearsals, but it is not entirely excluded that for the Venetian theater, with its performing forces and already developing performance skills, such a recording of the work was sufficient. One way or another, one thing is certain: the instrumentation is not written out or indicated, and therefore, such a subtle sound differentiation as is characteristic of the score of “Orpheus” could not be discussed here. It remains to be assumed that Monteverdi’s music in “The Coronation of Poppea” was designed for strings (viols, lutes, harp, double bass), cymbals and small organs, but how exactly the composer distributed and highlighted these timbres can only be guessed at.
The opera begins with a very short instrumental introduction. Only the top two voices (obviously viol or violin parts) and basso continuo are recorded. Following the example of the “couples” of dances common in everyday life, the same theme is first used as the basis for the pavane, then for the galliards. What can I say - the simplest solution to the problem! The introduction is followed by an allegorical prologue.
The entire first act (the most intense of the three) is structured in such a way that the various forces of the drama (Nero - Poppea, on the one hand, Otto - Octavia and Seneca, on the other) are repeatedly opposed in their ensuing and increasingly intensifying struggle.
Otto returns to Rome at night from a trip on which Nero sent him. Approaching the house, he warmly rejoices at the upcoming meeting with Poppea. His monologue (with instrumental ritornellos) seems to combine musical-dramatic recitation and arioso features. At first it is light, somewhat hymn in nature and leads to an upsurge of joyful emotions. But then Otto notices the guards - Nero's soldiers - at his house and guesses about Nero's presence and Poppea's betrayal. Here the vocal melody loses its previous character, becomes restless, and tensely returns to the same dramatic intonations. The development of the drama is interrupted by prosaic details. The soldiers enter into a long conversation with each other (dialogue and duet), share their concerns, complain about the service, about Nero, about Rome, talk about Octavia, abandoned by Nero, about his beloved Poppaea...
Nero and Poppaea emerge from the house. The big love scene combines fast, conversational recitatives, melodious recitation, and ariot singing. Transitions from recitative to arioso are made flexibly, the melody flows freely, sometimes with virtuosic passages. A broad and brilliant dialogical scene is followed by a solo episode (Poppaea after Nero's departure) and a scene of Poppaea with her maid.
The new picture (Octavia’s) initially contrasts sharply with the previous one. Abandoned by her husband, Octavia shares her sorrows with her confidante. Seneca appears, listens to Octavia and gives her advice to calmly accept her fate and bravely, with dignity, stand in misfortune. His part, in a wide ariatic style (a range of two octaves), is serious, impressive, even heroic. Seneca’s solemn tone is contrasted by the light, humorous remarks of the young page: comedic touches again invade the drama, but this is only for a moment. The climax zone of the entire first act begins. Seneca is left alone. Pallas Athena foretells him near death. He stoically accepts the fateful news. Nero announces to Seneca that he is leaving Octavia and intends to marry Poppaea. In a tense dialogue, Nero and Seneca collide, who decisively dissuades the emperor from his intentions, citing the inevitable discontent of the people. The enraged Nero stutters in insane anger... After Seneca leaves and with the appearance of Poppea, a new love scene begins. Poppea further adds fuel to the fire by slandering Seneca to Nero. The Emperor sentences him to death. But this does not end the first act. Next, a new line of intrigue is emerging. Otto seeks to return Poppea, she resolutely rejects him (big scene), and he, in despair, plots to kill her. Meanwhile, young Drusilla is in love with Ottone. Otto vainly hopes to find solace near her: “On the lips of Drusilla, in the heart of Poppaeus.”
As a result, the development of events within the very first act of the opera turns out to be so intense that this alone suggests a “non-stop” movement of the music, now in a declamatory, now in an ariatic style, in solos and in ensembles, but, undoubtedly, without static decorative episodes. A completely different operatic dramaturgy is emerging in comparison with Orpheus.
At the beginning of the second act, tragedy comes into force. Mercury warns Seneca that he will soon die, and immediately the chief of the Praetorians announces his death sentence. Seneca is fearless in his stoic grandeur. He accepts death like a philosopher who has realized the futility of earthly passions. His party is broad and heroic, he addresses his loved ones with dying instructions, and they, shuddering with fear, beg him not to die. This choir of Seneca's students stands out, like many other tragic pages in Monteverdi's scores (in operas and madrigals), by the acute unusualness of their sounds. In polyphonic three-voice, voices are imitatively layered, slowly, heavily rising in chromatic successions, which creates the impression of painful, oppressive sorrow. But Seneca is firm in his decision. With words of farewell, he leaves to open his veins.
Here a dramatic contrast, sharp in paradox, arises. The most tragic scene of the opera gives way to a cheerful interlude: a young page courtes a flirtatious maid. It sounds like a simple, light arietta of a page in the spirit of a genre song. The cheerful dialogue ends with a duet.
The action returns to Nero, whose appearance is revealed more and more fully. The emperor and his dining companions celebrate the death of Seneca with a noisy orgy, mocking her and singing the joys of life. The brilliant virtuoso duet of Nero and his close associate Lucan (vocal parts include laughter) fits well with the whole atmosphere of unbridled feasting.
Octavia calls Otto to her, and they, like offended spouses, together consider a plan for revenge. Under pressure from Octavia, Otto strengthens his decision to kill Poppea. To protect himself, he changes into a woman's dress, taken from Drusilla.
Poppea falls asleep, lulled by her nurse. A lullaby that is sung. the nurse, is simple and at the same time original in its melody, measured and smooth, but with an unusual modal tint, either archaic or slightly exotic. The dream of Poppea and Cupid, who descended from heaven, is guarded. When Otto penetrates Poppea to strike her with a sword, Cupid stops his hand. Suddenly awakening, Poppea notices only a rapidly retreating figure in Drusilla's dress.
The third act draws attention to the pure image of Drusilla, who selflessly loves Ottone. Suspicion of murder falls on her. Poppaea's nurse denounces Drusilla. Nero, under threat of torture, demands a confession from her. His anger is furious, he rages, shouting: “Scourge, strangle, burn...” - and the aggressive, rough melody of his arioso complements the appearance of the despot. Drusilla does not betray Otto and takes his guilt upon herself. She faces execution. But then Otto appears, and from his confession everyone learns the truth. Nero sentences Octavia and Otto to exile. Now he is free and can unite with Poppea. The repulsive image of Nero in these scenes is contrasted with the bright image of Drusilla and the sad image of Octavia. Enduring the threat of threats, Drusilla expresses her determination to remain courageous to the end in a small, serious and understated monologue. Condemned to exile, Octavia, in deep grief, says goodbye to everything that is dear to her - Rome, her homeland, her friends. Her farewell-complaint is majestic, very simple, very strict in the choice of means of expression, and only the unusual dismemberment in the flow of music, like intermittent breathing, imparts a tragic imprint to the whole.
So, the denouement of the drama brings complete triumph to Nero: the forces opposing him are defeated. The opera ends with the coronation of Poppea as the emperor's wife and the love duet of Nero and Poppea. Solemnly and magnificently, in the presence of consuls and tribunes. The coronation ceremony of Cupid and Venus is performed. A festive symphony for wind instruments sounds (on stage). But the composer was not satisfied with this ending. Afterwards, he chose to end the opera with a great duet of happiness, the achieved happiness of love and ambition. This last duet of Nero and Poppea is widely deployed, flows naturally, like a love dialogue, with remarks and graces, the jubilant heroes pour out their feelings, turning to each other. However, behind this impression of ease there is a strong, as if bound by steel hoops, musical form. In addition to intonation connections, there is a basso ostinato in the first and third parts, and the duet is not entirely sustained throughout almost the entire duration of the duet. strict canon vocal parts.
This “happy ending” is essentially not very optimistic: the strong, the cruel, the ambitious won, the pure and the insulted died, were suppressed, and were excluded. Behind the bright figurative contrasts and bold exposure of the truth of life in Monteverdi's last opera there is something more: his philosophy in his declining years, his worldview, as it has been developed over many years of experience. There is no doubt that the author of The Coronation was a strong personality. He correctly felt the social and psychological contradictions that he could both observe and experience personally. He appreciated the diversity and beauty of life, paid tribute to courage, ethical purity, and moral fortitude. But it seems that he lost faith in the possible victory of justice and, wanting to be truthful, did not hide it. As you can see, the dramatic concept of Monteverdi's last opera is quite broad. Her courage is truly Shakespearean. Perhaps this is why the example of Monteverdi turned out to be unattainable for the next generations in the art of opera.
Monteverdi's historical position is unique to his era. On the one hand, he realized her highest artistic possibilities and thereby, as it were, broke through into the future. On the other hand, it does not belong to its typical phenomena.
As the creator of the "excited" style, for example, Monteverdi undoubtedly best expressed the dynamics of his era. Italian painters of the mid-17th century - Valerio Castello, Francesco Maffei and especially Sebastiano Mazzoni - were also extremely dynamic in their perception of the world. But no matter how stormy their dynamics may be in the transmission of emotions, actions, natural phenomena, all these passions and this whirlwind, new bold techniques and means of expression are still far from connected with the images and concepts of Monteverdi's strength and significance.
As a representative of a new style (“new practice” - in the composer’s words) and at the same time a polyphonist developing the best traditions of the 16th century, Monteverdi also entered the main line of musical development from the Renaissance to the 18th century. But even here he broke far away from the typical phenomena of his time, since he achieved an artistic synthesis that was still inaccessible to his other contemporaries.
Claudio Monteverdi(Monteverdi) (baptized 05/15/1567, Cremona - 11/29/1643, Venice) - Italian composer. From childhood he served as a choirboy in the Cremona Cathedral; here he studied with organist M. A. Ingenieri, from whom he adopted the technique of polyphonic writing (primarily in the genre of spiritual madrigals). In 1590 he moved to Mantua and for 12 years served there as a singer and violist, and later as an assistant bandmaster. In 1599 he traveled to Flanders, where he had the opportunity to get acquainted with Flemish and French music.
Monteverdi initially gained fame as the author of canzonettas and especially madrigals - secular and sacred. Monteverdi's first three youth collections of madrigals were published in 1582-1584. Already in these early works of Monteverdi, a high polyphonic technique is visible. During Monteverdi's lifetime, about 10 collections of 4- and 5-voice madrigals were published; the most significant of them are 5-voice madrigals, published in 7 collections in 1587-1619. A separate collection was dedicated to “Love and Warlike” madrigals (1638). In madrigals, Monteverdi introduces many innovations in the field of harmony and polyphony: leaps to seventh and nona, seventh chords, chromaticisms, parallel fifths. Along with polyphony, features of a chord-harmonic structure appear in Monteverdi's madrigals. Monteverdi often added instrumental accompaniment (harpsichord, lute) to vocal parts.
The composition of madrigals and canzonettas was an important stage in Monteverdi's preparation for operatic work. Monteverdi’s acquaintance with the work of Florentine composers, authors of the first operas, also played a significant role. Peri, Caccini and others. In 1607 Monteverdi received an order to write music for theatrical performance in the Duchy of Mantua. This was Monteverdi's first opera "Orpheus", which amazed listeners with its unusual tragic interpretation of the mythological plot. Following "Orpheus", a number of other operas by Monteverdi appeared, strengthening his fame as an opera composer (posted in Venice): "Ariadne" (1608), from which the only famous aria "Ariadne's Lament" has been preserved, "Proserpina" (1630), "Return" Ulysses" (1641), "Coronation of Poppea" (1642). Monteverdi's most innovative work is The Coronation of Poppea, for the first time in the history of opera written on a true historical plot (events of the times Nero).
From 1613 until the end of his life, Monteverdi served as director of the Chapel of St. Mark in Venice. Over the course of 30 years, he wrote a lot of church music; Monteverdi's innovation extended to this area of creativity.
In 1637, in Venice, with the direct participation of Monteverdi, the first opera house was opened, in which his operas were staged (in particular, “Ariadne” - 1639).
Monteverdi went down in the history of music as one of the remarkable opera composers of his time, the largest representative of the late Renaissance in Italy. Monteverdi's important merit is the introduction of arias and dramatic choruses into opera, along with recitatives that characterize the operatic style of his predecessors. Monteverdi sought to subordinate the music to the content of the text, to create individual musical characteristics characters. Harmonic and orchestral means played a big role in this. Monteverdi was the first to introduce an overture into opera, as well as new techniques in the orchestra - tremolo and pizzicato of string instruments. The orchestra in Monteverdi's operas reaches significant sizes (Orpheus - about 40 instruments). Along with the string and wind instruments that later became part of the classical orchestra, Monteverdi used the viol, lute, harpsichord and organ.
Claudio(Giovan Antonio) Monteverdi(baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice) - Italian composer.
Claudio(Giovan Antonio) Monteverdi(baptized May 15, 1567, Cremona - November 29, 1643, Venice) - Italian composer.
Monteverdi's work, innovative in many ways, marks the transition in the history of music from the Renaissance to the Baroque era. He worked in many genres of secular and church music. Most notable are his madrigals and operas, including the opera Orpheus, which is still performed today.
Claudio Monteverdi was born in 1567 in Cremona, a city in Northern Italy, into the family of Balthasar Monteverdi, a doctor, pharmacist and surgeon. He was the eldest of five children. From childhood he studied with M.-A. Ingenieri, conductor of the Cathedral of Cremona. Monteverdi learned the art of music by taking part in the performance of liturgical chants. He also studied at the University of Cremona. His first collections, which included small motets and spiritual madrigals, were published in 1582 and 1583 (Cantiunculae Sacrae, 1582; Madrigal Spirituali, 1583). They were followed by collections of three-voice canzonettas (1584), and later two “books” (collections) of five-voice madrigals (1587; 1590). From 1590 (or 1591) to 1612 Monteverdi worked at the court of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga (1562-1612) in Mantua, first as a singer and gamblist, and from 1602 as a bandmaster, organizer of all musical life at the ducal court.
In 1599 Monteverdi married the court singer Claudia Cattaneo, with whom he lived for 8 years (Claudia died in 1607). They had two boys and a girl who died shortly after birth.
In 1613 Monteverdi moved to Venice, where he took up the post of conductor of the Cathedral of San Marco. In this position, he quickly restored the professional level of the choir musicians and instrumentalists (the chapel was in decline due to the mismanagement of funds by its predecessor, Giulio Cesare Martinengo). The managers of the basilica were delighted to acquire such an exceptional musician as Monteverdi, because musical part worship had been in decline since the death of Giovanni Croce in 1609.
Around 1632 Monteverdi was ordained a priest. In the last years of his life, the last two masterpieces came from his pen: The Return of Ulysses (Il ritorno d "Ulisse in patria, 1641), and the historical opera The Coronation of Poppea (L" incoronazione di Poppea, 1642), the plot of which was based on events from life of the Roman Emperor Nero. The Coronation of Poppea is considered the culmination of Monteverdi's entire work. It combines tragic, romantic and comic scenes (a new step in the dramaturgy of the opera genre), more realistic portrait characteristics characters and melodies of extraordinary warmth and sensuality. The opera required a small orchestra to perform, and the choir also had a small role. For a long time, Monteverdi's operas were viewed only as historical and musical fact. Since the 1960s, the Coronation of Poppea has been revived in the repertoire of the world's major opera stages.
Monteverdi's work is represented by three groups of works: madrigals, operas and sacred music. The main feature of Monteverdi's compositional technique is the combination (often in one work) of imitative polyphony, characteristic of composers of the late Renaissance, and homophony, an achievement new era baroque. Monteverdi's innovation drew sharp criticism from the prominent music theorist Giovanni Artusi, in a polemic with whom Monteverdi (and his brother Giulio Cesare) outlined their commitment to the so-called “second practice” of music. According to the declaration of the Monteverdi brothers, in the music of the second practice, the poetic text reigns supreme, to which all elements of musical speech are subordinate, first of all, melody, harmony and rhythm. It is the text that will justify any irregularities in the latter.
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi(05/15/1567 (baptized) - 11/29/1643) - Italian composer, musician, singer. The most important composer of the Baroque, his works are often seen as revolutionary, marking the transition in music from the Renaissance to the Baroque. He lived in an era of great changes in music and was himself a man who changed it.
Claudio Monteverdi was born in Cremona, the son of a pharmacist and a doctor. He was musically gifted from childhood and at the age of 15 he had already published his first collection of works. In the preface to this edition, he says that his teacher was Mark Antonio Ingenieri, conductor of the Cathedral of Cremona. He studied composition, singing, and playing string instruments. He published his second book in 1583, a year after the release of the first. By that time , when he received his first position, he had already published several collections.
His first job was as a vocalist and violist at the court of the Duke of Mantua. At the Duke's court there were several excellent musicians, led by the famous Jacques de Wert. Monteverdi met many famous musicians, poets, artists (possibly Peter Rubens), sculptors, including those from Ferrara, which was nearby. In 1599 in Mantua, he married the daughter of one of the musicians, the court singer Claudia Cattaneo. His first positions were low-paid, but soon his music became well known, he became a member of the Roman Academy of the Site of Cecilia in Rome, and in 1602 he became the chief court conductor. While serving with the Duke, he accompanied him on trips and travels, including to the war in Hungary with the Turks. He also sent several of his compositions to the court in Ferrara.
The young Monteverdi was already working in a new musical style. old style was known as "First Practice", the new style was called "". "First Practice" continued to be used for church music. In this style of writing, music is considered more important than words. This means that the music can be very contrapuntal, i.e. with several melodies playing simultaneously, so that the words of the text are not clearly audible. In the Second Practice the words are more important than the music, and the music should be simple enough for the lyrics to be heard clearly. This is especially important in opera and madrigals. There has been much debate among musicians about the merits of these two styles and this may be the reason for the 11 year gap between his 3rd and 4th books of madrigals.
In February 1607, the first opera, Orpheus (libretto by Alessandro Strigio), was staged in Mantua with great success. "Orpheus" is amazing for early work a wealth of expressive means. Expressive recitation and a wide cantilena, choirs and ensembles, ballet, and a developed orchestral part serve to embody a deeply lyrical concept. This opera became famous throughout Europe and is still performed today.
In the same year, Monteverdi returned to Cremona; his wife died, leaving him with three small children (the youngest daughter also died soon after). This was a terrible tragedy for Monteverdi and he did not want to return to Mantua, but the Duke wrote to him, persuading him to return and provide music for the wedding of Prince Francesco Gonzaga and Margaret of Savoy. Monteverdi returned to Mantua, where he composed the opera Ariadne. The performance had big success, the audience was moved to tears, unfortunately, only one scene from the entire opera has been preserved - the famous Lament of Ariadne (Let me die...), which served as the prototype for many arias in.
Although Monteverdi's fame and skill were constantly increasing, at the same time many disputes arose with his employer. He eventually found another job, this time as a church musician in Venice's largest church, the cathedral. While moving from Mantua to Venice, his crew was attacked by robbers and the passengers were robbed. He arrived in Venice in October 1613.
Working as maestro (music director) at the Basilica of San Marco in Venice was the most prestigious job for every church musician in all of Europe. However, the state of music in this cathedral was deplorable due to the financial machinations of Monteverdi's predecessor. Monteverdi began to reorganize the music in the cathedral: he bought new musical works for the church library and invited new musicians, and also composed music himself for numerous church holidays. He did his job well and in 1616 his salary was increased to 400 ducats. The Duke of Mantua may have been very sorry to have lost such a musician, he asked Monteverdi to write music for him, and since Monteverdi remained his subject, he had to obey and sometimes wrote music for important events in Mantua.
In 1619 Monteverdi published his seventh book of madrigals, but after this he began to publish less music, perhaps because he was very busy, or because he no longer needed to seek fame, or it is also believed that this music was lost.
In the 1620s, he continued his work in Venice, became interested in alchemy, and met with a composer who was in Venice at that time. After the death of the Duke of Mantua in 1626, Monteverdi began to write less music for Mantua, they stopped paying for his compositions, the War of the Mantuan Succession began there, there was great destruction and an outbreak of plague.
In 1632 Monteverdi became a priest. In 1637, the first public opera house in history opened in Venice, and Monteverdi, who was already 70 years old, wrote operas for it. He made a brilliant end to his career with the operas The Return of Ulysses (Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, 1640) and The Coronation of Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea, 1642, historical), the latter is considered the culmination of his work. It contains tragic, romantic and comedic scenes (an innovation in opera), more realistic portrayals of characters and warmer melodies than before, uses a small orchestra, and the role of the chorus fades into the background. This opera (as well as Orpheus) is included in the repertoire modern theaters.
Claudio Monteverdi died in Venice on November 29, 1643 and was buried in the Basilica of Frari, next to the tomb of the artist Titian.
The work of Claudio Monteverdi
During the seventeenth century, there were two approaches to music making - the "First Practice" or "Ancient Style" created by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and the new style "Second Practice". Monteverdi wrote in both styles with equal skill. He lived and worked in an era of change, when the music of the Renaissance was giving way to the Baroque style, and stimulated this transition by developing and transforming all aspects of music.
He was the first composer to fully realize creative potential a new musical and dramatic genre - opera. Taking the primitive means created by the Florentine Camerata and, he enriched them with dramatic power, imagination and richness of sound. He transformed the recitative into a flexible, clear melody with long and consistent lines. Compared to Peri's archaic vocabulary and methods, his operas truly represent a new art.
He used rhythm, dissonance, instrumental colors, and changes in key to embody dramatic action, presenting characters, moods, and emotions in a way like no other of his predecessors and contemporaries. He invented instrumental techniques for playing string instruments - pizzicato and tremolo - to create the necessary excitement, passion and emotional intensity. was the first to understand the role of the orchestra in opera, describing the instruments for each part, understanding that winds and percussion are good for conveying military sentiments, flutes for pastoral scenes, violas and lutes for sentimental episodes. For his services, Monteverdi was called the “prophet of opera.” In his madrigals, Monteverdi also introduced instrumental accompaniment, making it not just a decoration, but an integral part of the work.
Monteverdi turned out to be an inventive and courageous composer. His inventions and handling of harmony and counterpoint were well received by his listeners, yet many of his colleagues harshly criticized him. While he was a "modern" composer, he also knew how to pay tribute to the older generation and their traditional principles. He published two completely different pieces in one collection, "Missa in illo tempore" and "Vespro della Beata Vergine", proving that he is a true master of music, combining with his magic completely different styles, while maintaining them individual characteristics- only a genius could do this.
(baptized 15.V. 1567, Cremona - 29.XI. 1643, Venice)
Italian composer, author of madrigals, operas, church works, one of the key figures of the era when the musical style of the Renaissance was replaced by the new Baroque style. Born into a family famous doctor Baldassare Monteverdi. Exact date The birth is not established, but it is documented that Claudio Giovanni Antonio was baptized on May 15, 1567 in Cremona.
Claudio apparently studied for some time with M. A. Ingenieri, regent of the Cremona cathedral. The first five collections of works from the pen of the young composer (Spiritual melodies, Cantiunculae Sacrae, 1582; Spiritual madrigals, Madrigali Spirituali, 1583; three-voice canzonettas, 1584; five-voice madrigals in two volumes: First collection, 1587 and Second collection, 1590) , clearly indicate the training he received. The period of apprenticeship ended around 1590: Monteverdi then applied for a place as a violinist in the court orchestra of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga in Mantua and was accepted into the service.
Mantuan period. The service in Mantua brought the musician a lot of disappointments. Only in 1594 Monteverdi became a cantor and only on May 6, 1601, after the departure of B. Pallavicino, he received the position of maestro della musica (master of music) of the Duke of Mantua. During this period (in 1595) he married the singer Claudia Cattaneo, who bore him two sons - Francesco and Massimiliano; Claudia died early (1607), and Monteverdi remained a widower until the end of his days. During his first decade at the Mantuan court, Monteverdi accompanied his patron on his travels to Hungary (1595) and Flanders (1599). These years brought a rich harvest of five-voice madrigals (Third collection, 1592; Fourth collection, 1603; Fifth collection, 1605). Many of the madrigals became famous long before they were printed. At the same time, these works caused an attack of anger in G.M. Artusi, a canon from Bologna, who criticized Monteverdi’s compositional techniques in a whole stream of poisonous articles and books (1602–1612). The composer responded to the attacks in the preface to the Fifth Collection of Madrigals and more extensively through the mouth of his brother Giulio Cesare in the Dichiarazione (Explanation), this work was published as an appendix to the collection of Monteverdi's compositions Musical Jokes (Scherzi musicali, 1607). During the composer's polemics with critics, the concepts of “first practice” and “second practice” were introduced, denoting the old polyphonic style and the new monodic styles.
Monteverdi's creative evolution in the opera genre began later, in February 1607, when the Tale of Orpheus (La Favola d'Orfeo) was completed to the text of A. Strigio the Younger. In this work, the composer remains faithful to the past and anticipates the future: Orpheus is a half-Renaissance interlude, half - monodic opera; the monodic style had already been developed by the Florentine Camerata (a group of musicians led by G. Bardi and G. Corsi, who worked together in Florence in 1600). The score of Orpheus was published twice (1609 and 1615). Monteverdi's works in this genre were Ariadne (L "Arianna, 1608) and the opera-ballet Ballet of the Ingrates (Il Ballo dell"ingrate, 1608) - both works based on texts by O. Rinuccini. During the same period, Monteverdi made his first appearance in the field of church music and. published a mass in illo tempore in the old style (based on Gombert's motet); in 1610 he added to it the Psalms of Vespers. Duke Vincenzo died in 1612, and his successor immediately dismissed Monteverdi and Giulio Cesare (July 31, 1612). For a while, the composer and his sons returned to Cremona, and exactly a year later (August 19, 1613) he received the position of head of the chapel (maestro di cappella) in the Venetian Cathedral of St. Brand.
Venetian period. This position (the most brilliant among those available at that time in Northern Italy) immediately saved Monteverdi from the injustices he experienced during his maturity. He served in the honorable and well-paid post of cathedral conductor for three decades, and during this time, quite naturally, switched to church genres. However, he did not abandon his opera projects: for example, for Mantua in 1627, the realistic comic opera The Imaginary Madwoman (La finta pazza Licori) was created. This work has not survived, like most of Monteverdi's musical and dramatic works dating back to the last thirty years of his life. But a wonderful work has come down to us, which is something between an opera and an oratorio: The Duel of Tancred and Clorinda (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorindo), written in 1624 in Venice (published in the Eighth Collection of Madrigals, 1638), based on a scene from the poem T .Tasso's Liberated Jerusalem, one of the composer's favorite poetic sources. In this work, for the first time, a new dramatic style (genere concitato) appears with the expressive use of tremolo and pizzicato techniques.
The fall of Mantua in 1630 caused the loss of many autographs of Monteverdi's works. The political upheaval caused by the struggle for the duchy after the death of the last of the Gonzaga dynasty (Vincenzo II died childless) also left traces in the life of the composer (in particular, his son Massimiliano was arrested by the Inquisition for reading illegal books). The end of the plague epidemic in Venice was celebrated in the Cathedral of St. Stamp 28 November 1631 solemn mass with music by Monteverdi (lost). Soon after this, Monteverdi apparently became a priest, as evidenced by the title page of the publication of his Musical Jokes (Scherzi musicali cio Arie e Madrigali in stile recitativo, 1632). The book, devoted to the problems of musical theory (melody), was written in the early 1630s, but little has survived from it, as well as from the operas of this period.
In 1637, the first public opera house opened in Venice under the leadership of Monteverdi's friends and students B. Ferrari and F. Manelli. This event marked the beginning of the flowering of Venetian opera in the 17th century. For the first four Venetian opera houses, Monteverdi, who was then already in his eighties, wrote four operas (1639–1642), of which two have survived: The Return of Ulysses to the Fatherland (Il ritorno d "Ulisse in patria, 1640, with a libretto by G. Badoaro) and The Coronation of Poppea (L"Incoronazione di Poppea, 1642, libretto by G. Busenello). Shortly before this, the composer managed to publish his madrigals, chamber duets and cantatas, as well as the best of what he created in church genres in two huge collections - Madrigals about war and love (Madrigali guerrieri ed amorosi, Eighth collection of madrigals, 1638) and Selva morale e spirituale (Spiritual and moral wanderings, 1640). Soon after the publication of these collections, on November 29, 1643, the composer died in Venice, having still managed to make his last trip to the places where he spent his youth, i.e. to Cremona and Mantua. His funeral took place solemnly in both main churches of Venice - St. Marka and Santa Maria dei Frari. The composer's remains were buried in the second of these churches (in the chapel of St. Ambrose). For about a decade, Monteverdi's music continued to excite his contemporaries and remain relevant. In 1651, a posthumous edition of his madrigals and canzonettas (Ninth Collection) and a significant collection of church music called the Four-Voice Mass and Psalms (Messa a quattro e salmi) were published; they were published under the editorship of Monteverdi's publisher A. Vincenti. In the same year, a new production of the Coronation of Poppea was shown in Naples, significantly different from the production of 1642. After 1651, the great Cremonese and his music were forgotten. Appearance Monteverdi is captured in two beautiful portraits: the first was reproduced in the official obituary in the book Poetic Flowers (Fiori poetici, 1644) - the face of an old man, with an expression of sadness and disappointment; another portrait was discovered in the Tyrolean Ferdinandeum Museum in Innsbruck, depicting Monteverdi in his mature years, when Orpheus and Ariadne was created.
Critical Assessment. The significance of Monteverdi's work is determined by three factors: he is the last madrigalist composer of the Renaissance; he is the first author operas performed the type of genre that was characteristic of the early Baroque; Finally, he is one of the most important authors of church music, since in his work the stile antico (old style) of Palestrina is combined with the stile nuovo (new style) of Gabrieli, i.e. the style is no longer polyphonic, but monodic, requiring the support of an orchestra.
Madrigalist. Palestrina began writing madrigals in the 1580s, during the heyday of the genre, and completed the madrigal Sixth Collection (1614), containing five-voice madrigals with the obligatory basso continuo, i.e. quality that defines the new concept of the madrigal style. Many of the texts of Monteverdi's madrigals are taken from pastoral comedies like Tasso's Aminta or Guarini's Good Shepherd, and represent scenes of idyllic love or bucolic passions, anticipating opera scenes in the earliest examples of this new genre: the experiments of Peri and Caccini appeared in Florence c. 1600.
Opera composer. Start operatic creativity Monteverdi, as if hidden in the shadow of the Florentine experiments, his early operas continue the tradition of the Renaissance interlude with its large orchestra and choirs in the madrigal style or with polyphonically animated movement of voices. However, already in the Ballet of the Ingrates the predominance of solo monody and ballet numbers in the sense of the French ballet de cour (court ballet of the 17th century) is noticeable. In the dramatic scene of the Duel of Tasso, the accompanying orchestra is reduced to a string quintet; here, picturesque tremolo and pizzicato techniques are used to convey the ringing of weapons in the hands of the fighting Tancred and Clorinda. The composer's latest operas reduce orchestral accompaniment to a minimum and concentrate on the expressiveness of virtuoso singing. The vocal coloratura and aria da capo are about to appear, and the psalmodizing recitative of the Florentine Camerata changes and is enriched dramatically, anticipating the achievements in this area of Gluck and Wagner.
Church music. Monteverdi's church music has always been characterized by duality: polyphonic pasticcios coexist here with theatrically colorful interpretations of psalms; one feels that many pages were written by the hand of an opera composer.
