Many musical and literary sources led to the beginnings of opera. Among the most important are the late 16th century Italian madrigal and a new musical style that arose out of theories about what, in the late 1500s, was known of ancient Greek music and theater. (We don't know a lot more now.)
The madrigal arose as an ideal union of music and text in the 1520s and 30s. By way of a definition, the early madrigal was a through-composed (no independent sections) polyphonic composition in which the usual four voices were equal in importance — the text was usually a poem on a pastoral and/or amorous theme. The favorite poets of madrigal composers were Petrarch, whose works enjoyed a major revival in the 16th century, Torquato Tasso, and Giovanni Batista Guarini.
The basic model soon extended to include more voices, more complex poetry with elaborate metaphors and conceits, and music more illustrative of the text, including specific words. The word "high" might, for instance, be set to a rising melodic line, while a word like "low" or "deep" set to a descending line. This practice is called "text painting."
By general agreement Giaches de Wert, court composer for the Duke of Mantua, was a touchstone composer of the Italian madrigal in the 1580s and 90s. His richly sonorous and textually sensitive works set the standard for the modern madrigal of his time.
The court of Mantua, seat of the Gonzaga dynasty, had close family and musical ties with the nearby court of Ferrara, seat of the Este family. At Ferrara a group of women musicians established a virtuoso school of singing; these were the famous "ladies of Ferrara," whose skill in singing was known throughout Italy. In collaboration with their court's chief composer, Luzzasco Luzzachi, they created a new kind of madrigal, conceived as a solo song with simple accompaniment by lute or keyboard, and adaptable to up to three voices.
The madrigal, in these various incarnations, always upheld the twin values of beautiful music and fidelity to the text, though the balance of the two varied. The accompanied song for 1-3 voices made famous by the three ladies combined features of both.
Separate from these developments were learned discussions of ancient Greek music in various academies, salon-type groups. Of particular importance was the Florentine nobleman Count Giovanni Bardi in Florence, who convened a group of literati, musicians and other intellectuals to debate the relationship of Greek music and drama.
They concluded that the greatest effect would be produced by a music in which the main affect (emotional or psychological state) was concentrated in a single vocal line with simple instrumental accompaniment. The early examples of the resulting style were called recitative style, or theatrical style.
Guilio Caccini, a famous singer and composer from Rome, was part of these deliberations. Eventually he published a treatise on the new style, Le nouve musiche (The New Music), in 1602. It had a theoretical introduction, drawn from the discussions of the Bardi circle. More importantly it contained a number of solo songs with instructions on how to sing in the new style, including various kinds of ornaments to the melodic lines.
In this New Music, the words ruled the music. The sense of the text and even particular words dictated the music. That said, the beauty of the voice and the artistry of the singer were still essential. Moreover, the performance must have the quality of sprezzatura, a kind of nonchalance in which the rhythm was flexible, as though "one could almost speak in tones," as Caccini put it. This style was central to early music dramas, or operas.
In 1607 the famous composer Claudio Monteverdi wrote an opera on the Orpheus legend, Orfeo. This is not the first opera, but it is the first extant complete opera, and much of it was composed in the style of Caccini's New Music.
Orpheus is a demi-god, the legendary musician of antiquity, who sang and played so beautifully that he could charm animals, humans and even the gods. He seeks a mate, discovers the beautiful Euridice, and his happiness knows no bounds.
His happiness is destroyed when his beloved is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. Devastated, he resolves to go to the Underworld and try to persuade the gods to let him bring Euridice back to earth. There is, however, one condition — he must not look back at her. Unable to contain his passions, though, he looks back once and she is lost to him forever.
A recent recording of Orfeo, led by the internationally famous Spanish musician Jordi Savall, provides some examples. The opera begins with a brilliant Toccata, followed by the singing of a symbolic character, La Musica, who unfolds the story. This vocal number is in the new style. A little further along [at 28:54] Orpheus, having found his mate Euridice, sings of his happiness in "Vi recorda" The mood darkens, though, when he learns that she has died and sings his famous Lament [at 39:45].
Orfeo was a great success and had to be repeated several times for the Duke's guests. Virtually unknown for a long time except to music scholars, this work has more recently attracted attention from performers such as Savall and from adventurous audiences. And well it might: this is our first masterpiece of opera.
