Francesco Cavalli was one of the most important composers of the early baroque period, and was part of the movement that developed the genre of opera. As a chorister under the care of Claudio Monteverdi at St. Mark's, Venice, Cavalli received a great musical training and was at the epicentre of the development of the operatic form.
His operatic works were widely credited for their development of the recitative form, as well as their extravagant costumes and sets, very much in-keeping with the exuberent and grotesque fashions and sensibilities of the period. It was partly Cavalli's dependence on these physical aspects of the performance that led a division between French and Italian styles. Where the Italian style wanted grotesquery, the French style wanted finesse and dignity.
Cavalli wrote as many as 42 operas in his lifetime, although many of the manuscripts are lost.
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