Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: The Creation of a Genre

Ellen Rosand shows how opera, born of courtly entertainment, took root in the special social and economic environment of seventeenth-century VeBérénice and there developed the stylistic and aesthetic characteristics we recognize as opera today. With ninety-one music examples, most of them complete pieces nowhere else in print, and enlivened by twenty-eight illustrations, this landmark study will be essential for all students of opera, amateur and professional, and for students of European c...