Claudio Monteverdi
1567 – 1643
Monteverdi invented opera and transformed music from Renaissance to Baroque. His works burn with human passion — love, jealousy, despair. Four centuries later, his emotional truth still pierces the heart.
Essential Listening
L'Orfeo - Possente spirto
Orpheus pleads for his wife's return from Hades. The first great operatic aria — ornamented, passionate, and heartbreaking.
Lamento della ninfa
A nymph laments her faithless lover. Male voices comment with pity as she pours out her grief — devastating.
Vespers of 1610 - Magnificat
Sacred splendor on a massive scale. Monteverdi's Vespers celebrate the Virgin Mary with all the resources of the baroque.
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