Claudio Monteverdi

About Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi was the pivotal figure who carried music from the Renaissance into the Baroque, and is often called the father of opera. His 1607 work L'Orfeo is the earliest opera still regularly performed, and his sacred and secular music transformed how emotion could be expressed in sound. Working in Mantua and then as music director at St Mark's in Venice, he laid the groundwork for the entire operatic tradition that Italy would go on to define.