The Early Music Show - The Birth of Opera - The Birth of Opera: The Accademia degli Incogniti

Opera arrived in Venice with the opera Andromeda, brought to the city in 1637 and that began a virtual avalanche of productions there, so that just three years later Venice's third Opera house had opened and showed a total of five different new works during the 1640 carnival season. But the story of Opera's explosion in Venice is an intriguing one, with a plot which reads like a deft political thriller. Catherine Bott explores Opera's success in the watery city and the powerful role of the mysterious Accademia degli Incogniti. Bibliography Ellen Rosand - Opera in Seventeenth-Century Venice: the Creation of a Genre Muir - The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance Glixon & Glixon - Inventing the Business of Opera.