The Opera

A handful of Florentine amateurs set out to revive Greek tragedy—and failed. They had accidentally invented opera.

In late-sixteenth-century Florence, the experiment began with a bold theory: Greek drama had been sung, so spoken dialogue must give way to music. R. A. Streatfeild’s early-twentieth-century history follows the new art from Jacopo Peri’s fragile, recitative-led Euridice to Monteverde’s richer Orfeo, then traces the rival styles and innovations that carried opera across Italy and into France. At every turn, composers wrestle with a question at the heart of the form: should music serve the drama, or claim the stage for its own beauty? How did one failed revival become an art capable of ruling a nation’s theatres?

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