History La Dafne

prologue

gagliano s opera first performed @ ducal palace, mantua in late february 1608. had been intended form part of wedding celebrations of prince francesco gonzaga of mantua , margherita of savoy, arrival of bride delayed , staging brought forward (monteverdi s opera l arianna written marriage not performed until may). private performance of dafne given in florence @ house of don giovanni de medici on 9 february 1611. medici patrons of florentine gagliano , laurel (into heroine of opera transformed) symbol.

the text of rinuccini’s dafne set composer jacopo peri during carnival of 1597 @ palazzo corsi, home of wealthy merchant , co-composer jacopo corsi. score, while entirely lost save 6 musical excerpts, marked first piece in lexicon of known opera today. of composition, rinuccini quoted saying dafne, written me show in simple experiment, una semplice prova, music in our age, set music gracefully peri pleased incredibly few heard it. dafne set experiment derived out of conversations group called florentine camerata. men of florentine camerata sought revive classic greek dramas under hypothesis text sung. these experiments, stile recitativo, style of singing mimics speech, created.

the camerata headed count giovanni de bardi , composed of humanists, musicians, , intellectuals. luca barti, composer , music teacher member of group , teacher of marco da gagliano. while not officially stated gagliano whether or not present first incarnation of dafne in 1597 jacopo peri, known rising composition student in florence @ time strong connections camerata years before completed own setting of dafne.