Celebrating the self
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Description
The focus is now on the growing awareness of the physical, mental, and psychological attributes of the individual, and the development of a new philosophy which leads ultimately to Descartes’ formulation: cogito ergo sum. The first public opera house opens in Venice in 1637. Monteverdi, now maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St Mark, is perfectly placed for one final, extraordinary push into this brand-new dramatic world.
More Episodes
Monteverdi’s swan-song, L’Incoronazione di Poppea (1643), is a high-water mark of the new genre of public opera, Shakespearean in its contrasts of high and low-life characters, political chicanery and outrageous theatricality. It coincides with the death of the last two in this constellation of...
Published 09/25/20
Visual art – and especially the work of Caravaggio and Rubens (in different but complementary ways) now aimed to intensify sensory experience and drama. What Monteverdi called the “natural path to imitation” was a radical bid to represent, magnify and even ‘improve’ upon nature through song and...
Published 09/11/20
A window of opportunity opened for women artists and musicians at the start of the 17th-century, allowing a temporary escape from paternalistic dominance, before closing again by mid-century. Monteverdi’s empathy with his female protagonists and performers is examined; the actress Dame Janet...
Published 09/04/20
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