OPERA. : 
admit of few embellifhments or refinements from 
f the ancients 
could 
of 
moft fimple and ee melody, or it auld have been ut- 
‘ede unintelligi 
ci, who is outed as the Ennius of modern Italy, and 
the firft who attempted an epic poem in the language of that 
country, is faid b oe to have fi “© Mor- 
gante, Maggiore,” = the table of Lorenzo de’ Medici in 
yt 
d was afterwards perfeéted by 
Apoftolo Zeno and Metattafo, we fhall give the reader a 
fetch of the fable. 
ot urs drama there is an argument in verfe. 
is in five 
s. 
Ari sits 8,4 salagie the fon of Apollo, loved Eurydice, 
The piece 
the wife of Orpheus, in fo violent a manner, that he purfued 
her in the ld ; and in her flight from him, fhe was bitte 
by a ferpen ied. Orpheus, by finging, fo 
of w e 
foftened the seer that they fuffered her to n 
oul behind him. ut not 
Upon 
oured compli- 
ace, melody, 
or unity of defign; the lovers of poetry were meditating the 
eans r from mufical pedants, who, 
true Gothic {pirit, had loaded her with cumbrous ornaments 
in order, as was pretended, to render her more fine, beautiful, 
and pleafing, a ae ae ay mareceroer and mangled her. 
That fimilar to thofe that were after- 
wands ine by iia. names ® of operas ° and oratorios, had ex- 
were then know 
dram a fables anid oetr 
» fet to mufic in parts. 
,? rft pa lara in ne and oratorios; but this author 
fays at the end of his book, « w come to mufic, the 
third and Jaf part of dramatic reprefentations, which, in co- 
medies and aftorals, without chorufes, will be ufed at 
pleafure, in interludes, between the aéts, to relieve the 
{pectators, whofe minds may be fatigued by the attention 
they have beftowed on the fable. 
1560, for the court of Ferrara; al ae at Venice there 
was an sale age performed for the entertainment of Henry IIT. 
of France, at his return from Poland, on the death of his 
brother Charles IX., 1 :574, which was fet by the famous 
Zarlino. Thefe, and more, have been confounded by father 
a rier with the mufical dramas of later times, after the 
ention of oi set which alone fhould diftinguith the 
o from every other fpecies of theatrical 
aE 
ni Bardi, count 
of Venu Pietre Strozzi, and Jacopo ee of good tafte 
in piel ah being difcontented with every former attempt 
at perfecting dramatic poetry and exhibitions, determined to 
unite the be ft lyric poet with the beft mufician of their time ; 
and therefore chofe ttavio Rinuccini and Ji 
iouceui ce: Bandi and fees two other dramas 
for the fame kind o 
The revival of hetael mufic was brought about by the 
invention of recitative, which is now univerfally received, 
practifed, and preferred to the madrigal ftyle, in which the 
words are fo utterly unintelligible. 
n his preface, after enumerating the great per- 
8 aie were prefent at the reprefentation of the 
mae drama of Euridice at Florence in 1600, 
eminent muficians to 
Jacopo Corfi played the harpfichord ; Garzi - 
talvo the chitarone, or large guitar; Meffer nee ras 
iovanni Lapi a large 
Thefe four feem to have co 
that 
mans opened the road tor ones by his effays at dramatic 
Mo mnteve er as Rinuceini’s Artanna for the court of 
ot. 
difcourfe by aig della Valle on the mufic of his 
own time, addrefled by that celebrated traveller to Lelio 
Gudea in 1640, and publifhed in the fecond volume of 
works of Battifta Dow, at Florence, 1763, there is an 
in erlting, clear, and admirable account of the ftate of 
Italy, but particularly at Rome, during the be- 
ani Of the 17th century. a“ 
