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The Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), in addition to a large output of church music and madrigals, wrote prolifically for the stage. His theatrical works were written between 1604 and 1643 and included ten operas, of which three—''L'Orfeo'' (1607), ''Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria'' (1640) and ''L'incoronazione di Poppea'' (1643)—have survived with their music and librettos intact. In the case of the other seven operas, the music has disappeared almost entirely, although some of the librettos exist. The loss of these works, written during a critical period of early opera history, has been much regretted by commentators and musicologists. Opera, as a musical and theatrical genre, began to emerge during the early part of Monteverdi's career, initially as a form of courtly entertainment. With other composers he played a leading part in its development into the main form of public musical theatre. His first opera, ''L'Orfeo'', written in 1607 for the Mantuan court, which employed him, was a great success. In the years that followed, at Mantua and in his later capacity as ''maestro di capella'' (director of music) at St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Monteverdi continued to write theatrical music in various genres, including operas, dances, and intermedi (short musical interludes inserted into straight plays). Because in Monteverdi's times stage music was rarely thought to have much utility after its initial performance, much of this music vanished shortly after its creation. Most of the available information relating to the seven lost operas has been deduced from contemporary documents, including the many letters that Monteverdi wrote. These papers provide irrefutable evidence that four of these works—''L'Arianna'', ''Andromeda'', ''Proserpina rapita'' and ''Le nozze d'Enea con Lavinia''—were completed and performed in Monteverdi's lifetime, but of their music, only the famous lament from ''L'Arianna'' and a trio from ''Proserpina'' are known to have survived. The other three lost operas—''Le nozze di Tetide'', ''La finta pazza Licori'' and ''Armida abbandonata''—were abandoned by Monteverdi before completion; how much of their music was actually written is unknown. ==Background== Monteverdi's creative life covered more than 50 years. Between 1590 and 1612 he served as a musician in the Gonzaga court in Mantua, followed by 30 years (1613–43) as ''maestro di capella'' at St Mark's Basilica in Venice. This timespan saw opera develop, from its beginnings as a limited form of court entertainment, to become part of the mainstream of public musical theatre.〔Carter 2002, pp. 1–3〕 Before the Italian word "opera"—short for ''opera in musica'' ("musical work")—came into general use around 1634, musical stage works were typically termed ''favola in musica'' (musical fable), ''dramma in musica'' (musical drama), or ''tragedia in musica'' ("musical tragedy");〔Grout, p. 1〕 Monteverdi used these and similar descriptions for many of his early operatic projects.〔Carter 2002, pp. 298–305〕 The first work now generally considered as an opera is Jacopo Peri's ''Dafne'' of 1597, closely followed by ''Euridice'' (1600), for which Peri and Giulio Caccini wrote separate musical settings. Ottavio Rinuccini was the librettist for both ''Dafne'' and ''Euridice''.〔Grout, p. 35 and pp. 43–45〕 In the new genre a complete story was told through characters, and in addition to choruses and ensembles the vocal parts included recitative, aria and arioso.〔Ringer, pp. 23–24〕 It was a development from various older forms of musical theatre that had existed since the earliest years of the Italian Renaissance; such forms included the ''maschera'' ("masque"), the ''ballo'' (a dance entertainment, often with sung passages), and particularly the ''intermedio'' or ''intermezzo'', a short dramatic musical episode inserted as a prologue or ''entr'acte'' between the acts of straight plays.〔Redlich, p. 196〕〔Grout, pp. 23–30〕 Another format in the later renaissance period was the ''torneo'', or "tournament", a stylised dramatic spectacle in which the main singing was performed by a narrator.〔Redlich, p. 197〕〔Carter 2002, p. 171〕 Sub-operatic forms of dramatic music continued to thrive as opera itself developed; Monteverdi often resorted to these forms. The similarities of some of these forms to opera, and the somewhat blurred boundaries that existed for many years, have led to debate about how to categorise some works.〔Carter 2002, pp. vi–vii〕 For example, the precise genre of Monteverdi's ''Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda'' (1624) has proved particularly difficult to define.〔Carter 2002, pp. 190–91〕 Monteverdi's first acknowledged opera is ''L'Orfeo'' (1607). He composed, in all, 24 works for the stage. Of these, 10 are usually classified as operas, of which the music for 7 has been lost apart from a few fragments.〔 Most of what is known about the missing works comes from surviving librettos and other documentation, including Monteverdi's own extensive correspondence. Tim Carter, a leading Monteverdi scholar, suggests that the high rate of loss is explicable because, in Monteverdi's times, "memories were short and large-scale musical works often had limited currency beyond their immediate circumstances".〔Carter 2002, p. 4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lost operas by Claudio Monteverdi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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