The Early Music Show - The Birth of Opera - The Birth of Opera: Why Venice?

In the first of two programmes exploring the origins of Opera, Catherine Bott examines the genre from its earliest days in the courts of Florence and Rome. Although it began life in these courts, it was in Venice that Opera was truly born, and Catherine explores the circumstances which surrounded its arrival there during the city's Carnival season of 1637 and the reasons for its immediate success. 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.