Claudio Monteverdi
Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is one of the greatest Venetian basilicas. As in many temples of the Most Serene, aristocrats and artists are comforted here: Doji Giovanni Pesaro and Francesco Dandolo, the artist Titian and the sculptor Antonio Canova. To the left of the altar, decorated by Titian’s “Ascension of the Virgin Mary”, is the Milanese chapel, in the floor of which is an unexpectedly modest small plate with the printed name: Claudio Monteverdi. From the walls of the chapel the eyes of the saints of Tintoretto and Vasari look at the world, and the gray stone crowns the composer's earthly journey, who is rightly called the father of the world opera.
A short biography of Claudio Monteverdi and many interesting facts about the composer can be found on our page.
Short biography of Monteverdi
May 9, 1567 in the northern Italian city of Cremona in the family of a doctor was born the firstborn, who was baptized by the name of Claudio. The boy turned out to be musically gifted and entered as an apprentice to the conductor of the Cremona Cathedral, Marcantonio Ingenieri. At fifteen, Claudio dedicated the teacher the first edition of his motets.
Very quickly, Monteverdi became known not only in his native city, but also in all its neighbors - Brescia, Verona, Milan, Venice. In 1590 he moved to Mantua, becoming a musician to the duke Gonzaga. The conductor of the court was the Flemish composer de Verte, replaced by Palavicino, after whose death in 1601 took the post Monteverdi. Vincenzo Gonzaga highly appreciated the maestro who accompanied him on military campaigns and official visits. Because of this, Claudio met with the musical culture of European countries - Hungarian, French, Austrian, Dutch.
In 1599, Claudio married the singer Claudia de Cattanes, the couple had three children: two sons and a daughter, who died shortly after birth. Unfortunately, marital happiness was interrupted in 1607, when the spouse suddenly died. At the same time, the Gonzaga court began to experience financial difficulties. Monteverdi went to his native Cremona, but the duke tried to return him, offering a generous salary. Although the composer understood that it was necessary to look for a different path of development, there was no alternative yet, and he continued to work in Mantua until the death of the duke in 1612. Subsequent events were also bleak - the new duke fired Monteverdi, he had to return to Cremona penniless.
In 1613, Monteverdi went to Venice and after listening to him, on which he performed the music written for the occasion for the Mass, he received the post of maestro of the main temple of the Most High - Basilica of San Marco. It was the first musical post in the Catholic world outside the Vatican. At first, administrative concerns fell upon the composer — finding and training musicians and choristers, maintaining discipline — 30 singers and 6 instrumentalists served in the temple. But at the same time he had to write music for all major church holidays. And soon he began to order and other Venetian churches, and aristocrats, and the secular power of the city-state. Moreover, Monteverdi still wrote for the court of Mantua - formally he remained her subject, although he blamed the fact that the duchy owed his pension.
The composer’s eldest son, Francesco, studied law at the Faculty of Law in Padua and Bologna, however, his passion for music was stronger, and in 1623 he came to his father to serve in the choir of the Cathedral of San Marco. The younger son, Massimiliano, continued another family profession and studied as a medic, but was seized by the Inquisition for reading forbidden books. It took father a lot of effort and money to avoid the young man torture and persecution.
In the early 1630s, a plague came to Venice, which destroyed a third of the city’s population, and lost a younger brother, Giulio Cesare, in the hellish fire of the terrible illness of Monteverdi. In the same period, the composer becomes a priest, taking dignity. The maestro died on November 29, 1643.
Interesting Facts
- Italy is saturated with world cultural heritage, where every city is the cradle of the arts. Despite this, a small Cremona can claim to be the most musical city in the country, since it is home not only to Monteverdi, but also to great violin masters and virtuosos - Amati, Stradivari, Guarneri. Violin workshops are the glory of the city today.
- In both manuscripts of the "Coronation of Poppia" (Venetian and Neapolitan) there is not even the designation of instruments - only a score for the voices of soloists and continuo (bass voice for the construction of accompaniment). The creation of orchestral accompaniment was the work of music interpreters, not the composer.
- Unlike later composers, Monteverdi did not divide the party by type of vote. All the major parties of the Coronation of Poppa, with the exception of Seneca, were written for soprano. Male roles are often performed by castrati singing in the same Tessiture. These traditions in modern productions do not find continuation; for greater confidence, men's parties perform tenors.
Creativity Monteverdi
The first works of the young Monteverdi - motets and madrigals - show their author as a creator who is quite mature for his time. He continued to publish madrigals during his service at the Mantuan court. However, during these years his first opera was born, as we would say, or the “musical tale”, as it was called then. In 1607, during the carnival premiere "Orpheus"- the first example of an excellent combination of drama and music. Monteverdi was most likely in the delegation of the Duke Gonzaga at the Eurydice opera J. Peri, held in 1600. This work could not but inspire such an admirer of the arts as the duke, he wished see similar works and at his court.
But Monteverdi, indulging the patron, undoubtedly went much further Peri. Him "Orpheus"- this is not just a series of recitatives, it combines arias, duets, dances and chanting parts. And most importantly, they all have a natural development, harmoniously moving from one element to another. The idea of a musical drama so captured the composer that a year later appeared not preserved to this day "Arianna". However, he did not forget about his duties to compose for the church. In 1610 he wrote two outstanding works: the mass" During It "and the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, in which he uses new methods of composition. Before the world knew BahaThe Monteverdi Vespers was undoubtedly the most outstanding work of sacred music.
In his striving to develop musical art and look for new forms, the composer went against the traditions and rules, which made him an object for criticism. In order to explain his aesthetics and techniques, he formulated their main points in a brief essay "The Second Practice".
For most of his career, Monteverdi was associated with the church as a musician, therefore there are relatively few spiritual compositions in his heritage. While serving in Venice, he continues to publish collections of madrigals, a total of 9 books, including those published posthumously. Many of the master's works have been completely lost - most of the works created for Mantua between 1613 and 1627 were destroyed during the Mantuan Succession War after the death of the last direct descendant of the Gonzago family.
In 1637, San Cassiano opened in Venice, the first public theater in Europe. A real “opera fever” began in the city: theaters opened one after another, staging mastery and stage design developed and, of course, the art of composing experienced a special upswing. The creative wave did not leave aside the 70-year-old maestro Monteverdi: it was during this period after a significant break that three of his operas were born - "Ulysses return to his homeland", "Wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia"and"Coronation of Poppa".
"The return of Ulysses to his homeland" was created on the basis of the myth about Odyssey. Venetian composers often used this plot - it was close and understandable to a city that was married to the sea like no other. The main opera premieres in Venice took place in the days of the carnival. The novelty from maestro Monteverdi was played from the stage of the Santi Giovanni e Paolo Theater in the carnival season of 1639/40. About the "Wedding of Aeneas and Lavinia", delivered a year later, only excerpts of the libretto have reached our days. But the "Coronation of Poppa" and today is one of the most popular works of the maestro. She became the first opera in the world, based on a historical plot and the last work of a 75-year-old composer. The libretto by Giovanni Buzenello is based on evidence from the Roman historian Tacitus. The premiere took place during the carnival of 1642/43.
Who are you, the author? ...
The work of Claudio Monteverdi was separated from us by several centuries, most of which his works were in oblivion. The lack of full-fledged authorized manuscripts has created many doubts about the authenticity of works, which were considered to be monteverdievskimi. The main battles revolved around the last two surviving works of the composer - "Ulysses Returns to the Homeland" and "Coronations of Poppa". Their fate was very similar - after several performances in the 17th century, operas were considered lost until manuscripts were found centuries later. In the case of Ulysses, the authenticity of the find was immediately questioned - the score was incomplete and in many cases did not match the extant libretto and also stylistically differed from the “Coronation of Poppa”, written only three years later. In the mid-20th century, thanks to indirect historical evidence, the manuscripts were approved as belonging to Monteverdi, and the opera began to appear Serving on the stages of the best theaters in the world.
Accurate information about the premiere of "The Coronation of Poppa", the composition of performers, eyewitness memories or critical articles did not survive. In 1651, the opera was staged in Naples, revealing a new version of the work. At the end of the 19th century, the manuscript of the opera Nero (its second name) with the name Monteverdi on the cover was found in one of the private collections. It turned out that the Venetian and Neapolitan editions differ not only from each other, but also from the original libretto. As it was subsequently established, not all parts of the found score were written with one hand, the second act was dated by the 18th century! In the middle of the 20th century, V. Osthof stated that the first and third acts of the Venetian manuscript of an opera were written by the same person who wrote the scores of operas by Francesco Cavalli in the 1650s, that is, after the death of Monteverdi. In addition, according to the musicologist, numerous edits and comments to the manuscript belong to the hand of Cavalli himself. Studies conducted by scientists in different countries of the world led to the fact that by the 1970s no one could state unequivocally that the author of the "Coronation of Poppia" was Monteverdi. Moreover, in the composer's famous lifetime descriptions of the last years there is not a single mention of the fact that he created such an opera!
For decades, the versions rained down from the horn of plenty. We even agreed that the Coronation of Poppia is the product of the collective work of several composers, including Monteverdi. But finally, there was a historical artifact - a letter from an unnamed person to the French cardinal, which mentions the success of the diva of Anna Renzi in the opera "The Coronation of Poppia", written entirely by Monteverdi. In addition, the works of musicologists appeared, proving that in this work the unique style of the composer is obvious, which cultivated the passionate and emotion-filled art of the opera from modest romantic madrigals.
Monteverdi music to the movies
Cinematography is rarely interested in baroque music. However, Monteverdi's tunes were included in the soundtracks of famous films:
- "Star was born", 2018
- "Scary Tales", 2015
- Christmas Tale, 2008
- "Child of Macon", 1993
- "Moliere", 1978
- War and Peace, 1966
Among the video versions of the Maestro's operas it can be noted:
- "The Coronation of Poppa" Real Theater, 2012, production by P.L. Pizzas, in the main parties - Daniel De Bottoms and Philippe Jarussky;
- "The Return of Ulysses to the Homeland" of the Zurich Opera, 2002, production by KM Gruber, in the main parts - Vesselina Kazarova and Dietrich Henschel
- "Orpheus" Opera Brussels, 1998, directed by R. Aeshlimann, in the main roles - René Jacobs and Simon Kinlisayd.
The name of Claudio Monteverdi is surrounded by many mysteries, the more attractive his work, the clearer you can hear through the centuries the living voice of a genius who gave humanity a new kind of art. That is why on a modest stone in the chapel of the Milanese always live flowers as a sign of gratitude from all of us.
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