This is the first book dedicated to the early history of opera in Europe from a comparative perspective.
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It takes into account not only the various beginnings of opera in Italy around 1600 (Florence, Rome, Mantua), but also the mechanisms of reception and adaptation of the new genre outside of Italy in the following decades (in the German-speaking realm, and in the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania). Questions of genre and its terminology are discussed as well as the history, function, and contents of librettos and their distinctive linguistic and structural devices. Special attention is paid to issues of performance practice, such as the assignation of certain types of roles to certain types of singers, and staging. In order to broaden this perspective, the influence of Spanish 17th-century spoken drama on the early Venetian opera is explored. Furthermore, the beginnings of regional operatic traditions outside of Italy (such as in Spain and France) play a central role, along with the specifically English concept of ‘dramatic opera’, and the question of music in spoken drama. In this way, new and fascinating insights can be gained into opera in its initial phase (roughly from 1600 to 1680), including its development and regional styles, its acceptance or rejection, and the critical discourse surrounding the genre.
