FROM THE MEDICI TO THE GONZAGA FROM INTERLUDE TO OPERA
The October auction catalogue of rare books and autographs displayed two milestones in the history of Western music, two masterpieces that represent the birth of the Opera in the modern meaning. The first was an album containing the illustrations of the wedding of Ferdinando de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine. Printed in Siena by Filippo Suchielli after 1592, it consists of 17 double-page plates that show the architecture and set designs drawn for the celebrations organized in 1592, when Florence was the center of one of the most impressive and spectacular festivals of its whole history—one of the richest and most opulent of the all the 16th Century. For that occasion, several theatrical works were staged, including La Pellegrina by Girolamo Bargagli, which is particularly significant as it represents the climax of Italian 16th Century music. The greatest talents of the Medici court worked on its production: Giovanni de’ Bardi, Bernardo Buontalenti, Ottavio Rinuccini, Luca Marenzio, Cristofano Malvezzi and Giulio Caccini. Realized with an abundance of means and wonderful scenic machines to impress the public, they met with such a large success that its music was printed for the first time in history.
The second work was a volume that contained two very rare original editions of early opera librettos by Claudio Monteverdi bound together: La Favola d’Orfeo and L’Arianna, both printed in Mantua. L’Orfeo is universally considered the first modern opera. L’Arianna was commissioned to Monteverdi for the wedding of Francesco IV Gonzaga and Margaret of Savoy and is the second work of the great composer, following the performance of La Favola d’Orfeo by a few months. These two works represent the first lyric operas composed and staged at the dawn of the 1600s following the changes introduced into music by recitar cantando and by the studies of the Florentine Camerata de’ Bardi. Both commissioned for princely weddings, these two works attest the strong link between the courts of Florence and Mantua and represent the transition from ancient to modern music. Their success at auction is quite significant in the increasingly attentive and selective market for rare books.
By Cristiano Collari
The second work was a volume that contained two very rare original editions of early opera librettos by Claudio Monteverdi bound together: La Favola d’Orfeo and L’Arianna, both printed in Mantua. L’Orfeo is universally considered the first modern opera. L’Arianna was commissioned to Monteverdi for the wedding of Francesco IV Gonzaga and Margaret of Savoy and is the second work of the great composer, following the performance of La Favola d’Orfeo by a few months. These two works represent the first lyric operas composed and staged at the dawn of the 1600s following the changes introduced into music by recitar cantando and by the studies of the Florentine Camerata de’ Bardi. Both commissioned for princely weddings, these two works attest the strong link between the courts of Florence and Mantua and represent the transition from ancient to modern music. Their success at auction is quite significant in the increasingly attentive and selective market for rare books.
By Cristiano Collari