In mid-17th century Venice Francesco Cavalli (1602 – 1676) was the most famous composer in the rising genre of public opera . Overall, Cavalli created thirty-three operas. His magnificent masterpieces make use of a small orchestra of strings and basso continuo to overcome the limitations of opera houses. Francesco was a major force in spreading opera music throughout Italy. He also helped introduce it to France.
At that time opera was still quite a new medium. When Cavalli began working it did not attract huge audience. However, opera slowly matured into a popular public spectacle by the end of composer’s career. Francesco Cavalli was a driving force behind these innovations. He introduced melodious arias into his music and popular types into his libretti. Each of his operas has a remarkably strong sense of dramatic effect, great musical facility, and grotesque humour. Good example of it is “La Calisto”, opera with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini. A myth of Callisto from Ovid’s Metamorphoses served as a source of the story.
La Callisto was not a major success during Cavalli’s lifetime. Quite the opposite, it miserably failed. on 28 November 1651 opera premiered at the Teatro San Apollinare, Venice. Authors prepared a lavish spectacle for future audience. Opera house San Apollinare was specially equipped with complex stage machinery to impress and amaze public. Surpsingly, the first performances did not bring large audience. Even more, the run of first eleven performances attracted only about 1200 patrons to a theatre that housed 400. In addition, Faustini died same year during the first run, on 19 December.
In modern times baroque opera La Callisto has been successfully revived. The recording of this opera production has been re-released on a compact disc.
One of the earliest musical works that we recognize as an opera was created for an annual carnival in Mantua on February 24, 1607. Its creator revolutionary opera composer Claudio Monteverdi created it on the text by Alessandro Striggio. Today we know this early opera under the name The Legend of Orpheus or in Italian as “La Favola d’Orfeo”. Pretty simple libretto is based on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus, who attempts to rescue his dead lover Eurydice from the underworld.
The significance of this early opera is in its combination of new Baroque music genre and Renaissance elements. Besides, The Legend of the Orpheus is the first large composition that survived to our days with its exact instrumentation, while many other operas of that period are lost to us. It is an entirely new style of music which we know today as musical drama.
The Legend of Orpheus consists of 5 acts, Even today it preserved its dramatic power and lively orchestration. That’s why, Starting with its modern debut in 1904 in Paris, this Monteverdi opera returned to us and since that time saw many productions.
In 1733 during empress of Habsburg celebrated her birthday. All cities and towns belonging to the vast empire launched their festivities in her honor. In Naples the festivities program included opera Proud Prisoner created by brilliant Italian opera composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi on a libretto written by Gennaro Antonio Federico.
As an intermezzo a rather smaller comic opera Servant Mistress was included as well. It went on for only 45 minutes and was performed between the acts of the Proud Prisoner to entertain the audience. Servant Mistress or in Italian “La serva padrona” was written in the genre of opera buffa which has its roots in the improvisatory commedia dell’arte.
Well, “Proud Prisoner” miserably failed. Even today it does not exist in today’s opera repertoire. However, its intermezzo became huge success and wrote its name into the history of opera. Pergolesi separated it from its bigger brother and made it an opera in its own name that enjoyed fame throughout Europe for years after its premiere.
“La serva padrona” was appealing to people of different European nations because of its characters who motives were easy to understand. Audiences enjoyed the tricks of the cunning maid Serpina who felt that she was the mistress of the household and tricksed her aging master Uberto into marrying her.
The importance of this comic opera is significant. Modern specialists consider it the quintessential piece that bridges the gap from the Baroque to the Classical opera period.