Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi, the great Italian composer of the early Baroque period, was born on May 15, 1567 in Cremona, east of Milan. He was a gambist, that is, a performer on the viola da gamba, a stringed instrument central to the music of his time.

In 1607, Monteverdi composed L’Orfeo, to a libretto by Alessandro Striggio. This is an operatic re-telling of the classical legend of Orpheus, who descended into Hades in an unsuccessful attempt to bring his beloved Eurydice back to the world of the living. L’Orfeo remains in the operatic repertoire today.

Monteverdi is also remembered for his sacred music, notably his Vesper Psalms, which some musicologists see as foreshadowing Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St Matthew Passion.

His final work was L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea), composed in 1642, the year before his death. This, too, survives as part of the operative canon.