Orpheus in the Academy

This book introduces a new perspective on Claudio Monteverdi''s Orfeo (1607), a work widely regarded as the ''first great opera'', by exploring the influence of the Mantuan Accademia deglia Invaghiti, the group which hosted the opera’s performance, and to which the libretto author, Alessandro Striggio the Younger, belonged. Arguing that the Invaghiti played a key role in shaping the development of...