=Monteverde’s First Opera=.—In 1607, the marriage of Margaret of Savoy to Francesco Gonzaga, son of the Duke of Mantua, opened the way for Monteverde’s first opera, _Arianna_ (Ariadne), which was received with the utmost enthusiasm. Unfortunately, but a fragment of it remains, Ariadne’s lament after her desertion by Theseus, the most celebrated opera air ever written. In its unprepared discords of the harshest nature, in the poignant expression of grief and despair so at variance with the placid art of the day, this shows how, by a single stroke, Monteverde cut loose from all the traditions of the past. In its less than a score of measures it also anticipates principles of artistic structure which were not formulated for nearly a century later and which hold good to the present day. It is said that it brought tears to every eye. [Music: RITORNELLO BY MONTEVERDE.] =His Second Opera=.—The following year he produced his second opera, _Orfeo_ (Orpheus), so called to distinguish it from Peri’s _Euridice_ on the same subject. Though most of Monteverde’s works have been lost, the score of _Orfeo_ has been preserved. It shows a surprising advance over the simplicity of the Florentine operas. First of all, in the great _expansion of the orchestra_. This numbers thirty-seven instruments which throughout are _combined in groups_ and as a whole with an art prefiguring certain effects of orchestration supposed to be purely modern. Like harmony, instrumentation dates from Monteverde. Instead of the customary vocal prologue, it begins with a _Toccata_ (instrumental prelude). The composer’s keen dramatic instinct is shown by the masterly way in which he avoids the monotony of his predecessors; the recitatives are varied by the introduction of _ritornelli_, and each act ends with a chorus and a stately passage for the orchestra. Five years later, the most famous composer of the day, he left Mantua for Venice, where until his death he was director of music at St. Mark’s.