Claudio Monteverdi: Books and Music

Selected Books

Opera’s First Master: The Musical Dramas of Claudio Monteverdi
Amadeus Press, 2006
Mark Ringer
$21.86 on Amazon
Used copies for $9.99

“In part this book is a short biography of Monteverdi. And in part it discusses his place as the originator of opera as we know it today. But mostly it’s about the three surviving operas that he wrote: L’Orfeo (Orpheus, 1607), Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland, 1640), and L’incoronazione di Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea, 1643). The stated purpose of the book is not to treat these works as merely a part of operatic history but as the vital theatrical experiences that they are.”—John Matlock, from Amazon

The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi
Oxford University Press (second edition), 1995
Denis Stevens (trans.)
$290.57 on Amazon
Used from $156.14

“Along with Stevens’s generous annotations, these letters stand as a compelling documentary biography. No student or scholar of 17th-century music can ignore this collection.”–Choice