1st Edition
Orpheus in the Academy Monteverdi's First Opera and the Accademia degli Invaghiti
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 Orfeo, the author explores the philosophical underpinnings of the Invaghiti and Italian academies of the era. Drawing on new primary sources, he shows how the Invaghiti’s ideas about literature, dramaturgy, music, gender, and aesthetics were engaged and contested in the creation and staging of Orfeo. Relevant to researchers of music history, performance, and Renaissance and Baroque Italy, this study sheds new light on Monteverdi’s opera as an intellectual and philosophical work.
Introduction: "The Invaghiti Orfeo"
Chapter 1: The World of the Italian Academies
Chapter 2: The Invaghiti’s Literary Theater
Chapter 3: Musical Virtuosity and the Orphic Ideal
Chapter 4: Oratory and Noble Virtù
Chapter 5: Patriarchal Guidance, Gendered Educational Privilege
Chapter 6: The Mystical Architecture of Orfeo
Envoi: Orpheus’s Exit from the Academy
Biography
Joel Schwindt is Assistant Professor of Core Studies (Music History), Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He holds a PhD in Musicology from Brandeis University.
"Schwindt‘s fascinating account is a highlight in the vast scholarship on Monteverdi’s Orfeo. The musical analysis is compelling and readers will be drawn to the rich literary and cultural tapestry embedded in this innovative study."
Susan Lewis, co-author of Claudio Monteverdi: A Research and Information Guide
