Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi was an Italian composer, string player, and choirmaster whose work spans the transition from Renaissance to Baroque music. Trained under Marc'Antonio Ingegneri at Cremona Cathedral, he entered the Gonzaga court at Mantua around 1590, rising to master of music. There he wrote the opera L'Orfeo (1607), among the earliest operas to hold the stage, and the Vespers of 1610. In 1613 he became maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica in Venice, a post he held for three decades, producing madrigals, sacred music, and late operas including L'incoronazione di Poppea. He was ordained a priest around 1632 and died in Venice.