Opera's Early Migration Part I

            Opera’s first spread out of Florence seems to coincide with its first success and this was with Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in Mantua. It seems that many Republics and Principalities in Italy were in constant competition with each other when it came to many things, arts not being the least of them. Tim Carter notes that it was very likely that Monteverdi and librettist Striggio worked from a printed score of Peri’s Euridice learning lessons from its initial failure. Monteverdi was able to create a more popular-minded work which drew on his experience with madrigal writing even in cases of dry recitative, thereby making the work more enjoyable to hear and less tedious for the audience.  With the success of L’Orfeo in Mantua, opera would become a mainstay for some time (although there was some concern about taking the art out of the courtly arena and putting it in a divisive theatre); the same could not be said of all Italian cities.

            In Rome there was more treatments of classical Greek stories with the Orpheus legend quickly becoming a standard (Stefano Landi staged an adaptation in 1619). There was no Prince in Rome as there were in other Italian cities and therefore opera was nurtured by a few individuals in the private sector. Pope Urban VIII was a supporter of theatre and the arts and according to Tim Carter “offered opera at least potential stability.” Roman audiences, like those in Florence were not enthusiastic about constant recitative though, the aria was an essential aspect in order to fill seats (much as it is today). With the semi-frequent change in popes and ruling individuals (some kind to the art form of opera, others not so much) opera went through something of an on-again, off-again affair in Rome. It is also noteworthy that many of the most influential singers and composers of Venice received their training in Rome, Francesco and Maddalena Manelli and Ferrari, to name the ones illustrated by Tim Carter.

            Ferrari and Manelli experienced a great deal of success in Venice and Opera quickly grew in a way analogous to movie theatres in the 20^th century. These were public opera houses and the patrons quickly became the people attending rather than court commissions. This isn’t to say that the pieces did not have political overtones and Mr. Carter writes in a way almost insinuating the notion that the popular operas almost served as commercials for the beauty of Venice. Carter writes: "Like all the arts, opera was fast drawn into the service of articulating the ‘so-called ‘myth of Venice,’ emphasizing greatness, magnificence, and luxury.” Carter also tempers the popular idea that opera was becoming a popular art form, it still “catered to those in the upper echelons of society” but it did disseminate the art form into a more democratic status, now pieces were written for an audience instead of a prince or pope which most likely helped with its development into something that could be exported beyond the “borders” of Italy.