ABSTRACT

Cultural and economic contacts between early modern Venice and the Ottoman Empire were pivotal despite all rivalry and some violent crises. The composer Claudio Monteverdi, who had eye witnessed a battle against the Ottomans in Hungary in 1595, was elected Maestro Di Capella della Serenissima Republica Di Venetia' in 1613. This chapter examines one of the earliest experiments in musical drama: Claudio Monteverdi's opusculo in genere rappresentativo', a small theatrical work entitled Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, first performed at the apartments of his Venetian patron Girolamo Mocenigo in the Palazzo Dandolo in 1624. The Combattimento is one of the first works in which Monteverdi presented to Venice his Mantua-tested techniques of expressing affect in music. There is no evidence to suggest that Monteverdi had any experience with the music or the emotions of the Islamic East, so the encounter have been discussing would appear to have arisen from Monteverdi's imagination.