Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) composed ten operas, a genre which emerged while he was court musician in Mantua. His first opera, L'Orfeo, was premiered in 1607 and became the first opera still in today's repertoire. For seven opera projects the music is mostly lost. Four of these were completed and performed, while he abandoned the others at some point. Librettos have survived for some of them, and fragments of the music for L'Arianna and Proserpina rapita. Monteverdi composed operas for a theatre in Venice when he was master of music at San Marco there, including Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria in 1640 and L'incoronazione di Poppea in 1643, both of which also remain in the repertoire.
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