The composer

Though popularly associated today with Venice, where he served as maestro di capella at St Mark’s from 1613-43, many of Monteverdi’s best known works actually date from his time as a court composer in the less glorified setting of Mantua – these include his Vespers of 1610 and his groundbreaking opera L’orfeo (1607). A crucial figure in ushering in the Baroque style of composition, many of his novel techniques – which he termed the ‘Seconda practica’ (second practice) – deliberately challenged the rigorous theories of the Renaissance era into which he had been born, allowing a greater freedom of expressivity.