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- Title
Winds, cupids, little zephyrs and sirens: Monteverdi and Le nozze di Tetide (1616–1617).
- Authors
Carter, Tim
- Abstract
When Claudio Monteverdi was commissioned by Alessandro Striggio in December 1616 to set to music a theatrical text by Scipione Agnelli, Le nozze di Tetide, the composer made trenchant criticisms of it on the grounds of its problematic staging, its unmusical qualities and its failure to rise to the dramatic level of his operas Orfeo (1607) and Arianna (1608). This much is well known. However, we have failed to understand the place of Le nozze di Tetide in the context of a single evening’s entertainment (a veglia) intended to mark the entrance into Mantua of Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga’s new bride, Caterina de’ Medici (they were married in Florence in February 1617), and the circumstances that eventually led to it being dropped in favour of Santi Orlandi’s Gli amori di Aci e Galatea (performed in Mantua on 13 March). The Tetide affair also reveals Monteverdi’s use of high-level intermediariescum-brokers in his relations with Mantua, and his ongoing ties with the Gonzagas even after his dismissal from court service in the summer of 1612 and his subsequent move to St Mark’s, Venice.
- Subjects
MANTUA (Italy); ITALY; MONTEVERDI, Claudio, 1567-1643 . Le nozze di Tetide (Music); MUSIC premieres; MONTEVERDI, Claudio, 1567-1643; STAGE setting &; scenery for opera; 17TH century opera; FERDINANDO Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, 1652-1708; ITALIAN music; MUSIC history
- Publication
Early Music, 2011, Vol 39, Issue 4, p489
- ISSN
0306-1078
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/em/car081