Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi was baptised at Cremona in 1567 and published his first collection at fifteen. Twenty years at the Gonzaga court in Mantua produced the eight books of madrigals that carry the argument of his life - that words must govern the music rather than the reverse - and, in 1607, L'Orfeo, the earliest opera still in the repertory. From 1613 until his death in 1643 he was maestro di cappella at St Mark's in Venice, writing the Vespers of 1610, the Selva morale e spirituale and, in his seventies, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea for the city's new public opera houses. His first teacher in Cremona was Marcantonio Ingegneri.