3. Venice.

Monteverdi proclaimed his new position in his sixth book of madrigals, published in mid-1614 (significantly with no dedicatee). S Marco was certainly prestigious given its central role in Venetian ritual, although the famous musical establishment had been run down by ineffective maestri: Monteverdi reorganized the cappella, restocked its library (in 1614 he purchased partbooks by Palestrina, Soriano and Lassus among others) and recruited new musicians. The fact that his letters to Mantua so emphasize his good working conditions in Venice may have been a challenge to his former employers. But his composing and performing duties were well defined, and many could be delegated to assistants; he was respected and well treated; his good salary was regularly supplemented ex gratia; and there were rich pickings from freelance work in the city.

Monteverdi's duties for S Marco can be gauged from his letters and other sources; where we have precise details they are clearly the tip of the iceberg. As far as special feasts are concerned, he was required to direct, and often to compose, music for Holy Week and Easter (1615, 1619), the Feast of St Mark (25 April 1627), the Feast of the Holy Cross (3 May 1618), Ascension Day (Mass and Vespers, plus a cantata for the ceremony of the wedding of Venice to the sea; 1618), the Feasts of the Redeemer (1620) and St Justina (the anniversary of the victory at Lepanto; 7 October 1627), All Saints' Day (1620), and Mass and Vespers on Christmas Eve (1616, 1627, 1633). He provided music for four state banquets each year (as on St Vitus's Day, 15 June, in 1623 and 1626) and for other Venetian churches: Vespers in S Giovanni Elemosinario on 24 June 1620; for the Feast of St Charles Borromeo celebrated by the Milanese community in S Maria Gloriosa dei Frari on 4 November 1620 (similarly in 1635); a Requiem Mass for Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici sponsored by the Florentine community in SS Giovanni e Paolo on 25 May 1621 (the description by Giulio Strozzi is the earliest evidence of a close relationship with this Venetian poet); and for the patronal feast of the Scuola Grande di S Rocco at least in August 1623 and 1628. The procurators of S Marco were pleased with their appointment: Monteverdi's salary was increased to 400 ducats on 24 August 1616.

Ferdinando Gonzaga may have felt some remorse when, in December 1613, Prince Francesco de' Medici asked him for a copy of Arianna; certainly the cardinal (from 1616 duke) appears to have regretted the loss of so distinguished a composer, making several efforts to encourage him to return to Mantua. He also regularly commissioned music from Monteverdi, who was happy to use his Venetian duties as an excuse but could not always refuse: he was still a Mantuan citizen and subject. The ballo Tirsi e Clori (later included in the seventh book of madrigals) was performed in Mantua in January 1616; and although the proposed intermedi, Le nozze di Tetide, for the wedding of Duke Ferdinando and Caterina de' Medici (February 1617) remained unfinished, Monteverdi set the prologue to Giovanni Battista Andreini's La Maddalena, a sacra rappresentazione performed as part of the celebrations. A libretto received from Mantua in spring 1618, Ercole Marigliani's (Marliani) Andromeda, was eventually staged in Carnival 1619–20 (with another ballo, Apollo) and on 13 December 1619 Monteverdi dedicated to Duchess Caterina his seventh book of madrigals, for which he hoped to gain an endowment for his pension; he received a necklace instead. Plans to celebrate Caterina's birthday on 2 May 1620 with a performance of Arianna came to naught, but he wrote music for Carnival 1620–21 and set at least two of the intermedifor Marigliani's Le tre costanti, performed in early 1622 to celebrate the marriage of Eleonora Gonzaga and Emperor Ferdinand II.

Monteverdi maintained contacts elsewhere in Italy. In 1614 he sent a copy of his sixth book and other music to the poet Angelo Grillo (Livio Celiano), a correspondent from Mantuan times; he was invited by Rinuccini to visit Florence in 1617; in 1619–20 he acted as agent for Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, to print Francesco Petratti's Il primo libro d'arie; on 13 June 1620 he attended a meeting of Adriano Banchieri's Accademia dei Floridi in Bologna (he became an honorary member of its successor, the Filomusi, in 1625 or 1626); and in 1623–4 he sent music to Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena. He also cultivated several Venetian patrons: the lament from Apollo was performed in the palace of Giovanni Matteo Bembo in January 1620; in March 1620 he noted his regular service in the private oratory of Marc'Antonio Cornaro; in October 1622 Lorenzo Giustiniani had him recruit Andreini's commedia troupe; and the Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorindasv153 was performed during a carnival entertainment sponsored by Girolamo Mocenigo in 1624 (i.e. Carnival ?1624–5).

The Combattimento was published only in Monteverdi's eighth book of madrigals of 1638. With the sixth book of 1614, the seventh of 1619, the Lamento d'Arianna of 1623 and the 1632 Scherzi musicali, Monteverdi's rate of publication was now much slower: he no longer needed to make his name through print. However, the earlier madrigal books were regularly reprinted both in Venice (Bartolomeo Magni, printer of the seventh book, reissued books 1–7 in 1620–22) and in Antwerp (Pierre Phalèse reprinted books 3–5 in 1615). Single works were also included in collections emanating from Lombardy (Ala, 1618; Giulio Cesare Bianchi, Monteverdi's former pupil, RISM 1620³, 1620⁴; Calvi, 1620–21 (= 1621⁴), 1624², 1626³, 1629⁵), from Rome (Sammaruco, 1625¹) and Naples (Sabino, 1627⁴), from the Veneto (Lappi, 1623; Anselmi, 1624¹¹) and from north of the Alps (Gruber, 1615²; Bonometti, 1615¹³; Donfrid, 1622², 1627¹), as well as in some produced by Venetian colleagues and associates (Giovanni Battista Camarella, ?1623; Carlo Milanuzzi, repr. 1624; Leonardo Simonetti, 1625²). Curiously, Monteverdi did not publish any large-scale sacred collection until the retrospective Selva morale e spirituale of 1640–41; much sacred music must also be lost.

Monteverdi's father died on 10 November 1617, and his father-in-law on 24 April 1624; legal disputes ensued over Cattaneo's estate, including a house and 19 instruments. His own sons Francesco and Massimiliano caused some anxiety. In 1619 he moved Francesco, who was studying law at the University of Padua, to Bologna for spending too much time in musical circles. Massimiliano was also enrolled in the seminary in Bologna in 1619 and from 1621–2 as a medical student; he graduated in 1626 and moved to Mantua, only to be arrested by the Inquisition in September 1627 for reading prohibited material (Monteverdi sold for bail the necklace received for the seventh book of madrigals): the case dragged on for over a year.

Although he sought to give the impression of being happy in Venice – moving swiftly to dispel rumours in 1620 of a return to Mantua on the death of Santi Orlandi – Monteverdi was tempted by offers elsewhere. Indeed, he may still have hankered after a court appointment, for all his difficulties in Mantua. In July 1623 Antonio Taroni, a former Mantuan musician now in the service of King Sigismund III of Poland, noted that Monteverdi had differences of opinion with his employers (and, it seems, his colleagues) and offered him a salary of 1000 scudi plus other emoluments to move to Poland; Monteverdi went as far as to have Taroni write to Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga for permission for him to leave Italy. The Polish offer may have been repeated on the visit to Venice of Crown Prince Władisław Sigismund in March 1625: Monteverdi wrote a mass for his visit to S Marco and was involved in private music-making for the prince. In August 1627 he was involved in intrigue to gain the commission for the wedding festivities of Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, and Margherita de' Medici; he then spent long periods in Parma working with his assistant Antonio Goretti on six intermedi and a tournament (he also produced a mascherata for Carnival 1627–8). The festivities eventually took place in December 1628, and with some success despite the cold weather. His developing association with the Habsburgs in Vienna, fostered perhaps by the presence of Mantuan musicians there encouraged by Eleonora Gonzaga, may also reflect a desire to return to court. Not surprisingly, the procurators were anxious, ordering his return from Parma in November 1627 and December 1628. He was also denounced anonymously for expressing pro-Habsburg sympathies some time after 1623.

Otherwise, Monteverdi settled in to a quiet middle age, dabbling in alchemy in 1625–6, editing Arcadelt's four-voice madrigals (Rome, 1627), and welcoming foreign musicians, including Heinrich Schütz on his second visit to Venice (1628–9): Schütz honoured Monteverdi in Es steht Gott auf – reworking Armato il cor d'adamantina fede and Zefiro torna, e di soavi accenti – published in his Symphoniarum sacrarum secunda pars (1647). Monteverdi continued to compose: the dramatic cantata Armida abbandonata (1626–7); chamber music for the English ambassador and music for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, both on 17 July 1627; music for a banquet in Chioggia on 22 September 1627; five sonnets by Giulio Strozzi (I cinque fratelli) in honour of Grand Duke Ferdinando II and Prince Giovanni Carlo de' Medici for a banquet in the Arsenale on 8 April 1628; music for nuns at S Lorenzo in early 1630; a canzonetta probably for Enzo Bentivoglio sent on 9 March 1630; and the short opera Proserpina rapita for the wedding of Lorenzo Giustiniani and Giustiniana Mocenigo in April 1630. Commissions from Mantua slowed down with the death of Duke Ferdinando Gonzaga on 29 October 1626: an opera, La finta pazza Licori, was commissioned shortly after the accession of Duke Vincenzo II but little progress was made on its music. Thoughts also turned to the need for financial security: he repeatedly petitioned for the Mantuan pension, and in September 1627 he made the first of several attempts to gain a canonry in Cremona to secure an annual income.

The War of the Mantuan Succession and the sack of Mantua by plague-bearing Imperial troops on 18–21 July 1630 sent shock waves throughout Italy. A Mantuan delegation headed by Monteverdi's old associate Alessandro Striggio arrived in Venice, unwittingly infecting the city: almost 50,000 inhabitants had died by autumn 1631. The Venetians planned a new church in intercession: the ceremonial foundation of S Maria della Salute on 1 April 1631 involved music by Monteverdi, and his mass to celebrate the cessation of plague (21 November) included the Gloria (with added ‘trombe squarciate’) later published in the Selva morale. These were hard times: Monteverdi vowed to visit Loreto, took orders on 9 March 1631 and entered the priesthood on 16 April 1632 – hence the styling ‘Reverendo’ in his second book of Scherzi musicali (the printer’s dedication is dated 20 June 1632). Whether this was a matter of devoutness – Monteverdi never went to Loreto – or convenience remains unclear. Certainly the Cremonese benefice gained by the intervention of Emperor Ferdinand II, encouraged by his wife Eleonora Gonzaga in December 1633, brought him income from its associated property.

In 1633 Monteverdi was approached by the theorist Giovanni Battista Doni for his views on modern music; two letters to Doni (22 October 1633, 2 February 1634) reveal his intention still to complete the long-promised treatise on the ‘second practice’ (now titled Melodia, overo Seconda pratica musicale), and according to his eulogist Matteo Caberloti he was still working on it at his death. Two arias were included in an anthology by Alessandro Vincenti (RISM 1634⁷), and he provided music for Giulio Strozzi's Accademia degli Unisoni in Venice in 1637–8. Associations with the Habsburgs in Vienna became still stronger: he wrote a ballo, Volgendo il ciel per l'immortal sentiero, perhaps for the election of Emperor Ferdinand III in the late 1636; the revised Ballo delle ingrate for Vienna may date from this period (not 1628); and much of the eighth book, the Madrigali guerrieri, et amorosi, is associated with the new emperor (the dedication to him is dated 1 September 1638). Eleonora Gonzaga was in turn the dedicatee of the Selva morale e spirituale (1 May 1641). We do not know whether the manuscript of the opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria now in Vienna also reflects connections pursued at the time.

Monteverdi's contributions to the new ‘public’ opera in Venice (established in 1637) were remarkable by any standard, let alone for someone in his 70s. He revived Arianna to inaugurate opera at the Teatro S Moisè in Carnival 1639–40, and later that season produced Il ritorno d'Ulisse at the Teatro S Cassiano: it was then performed in Bologna and revived in Venice in Carnival 1640–41. His second Venetian opera, Le nozze d'Enea in Lavinia (Teatro SS Giovanni e Paolo, Carnival 1640–41) is lost; the preface to the scenario by the anonymous librettist (not Giacomo Badoaro, as was once believed) praises Monteverdi's dramatic abilities. His third, L'incoronazione di Poppea (SS Giovanni e Paolo, Carnival 1642–3), with the famous Anna Renzi as Octavia, was an astonishing achievement. Not all the music in the surviving sources (from the 1650s) is likely by Monteverdi, and the final scene was probably set by Francesco Sacrati, but it marks a glittering end to his career.

After Poppea Monteverdi made a six-month trip to Lombardy and Mantua in spring and summer, seeking once more to guarantee his Mantuan pension, which is also the subject of his last surviving letter, to Doge Francesco Erizzo in August 1643. He died in Venice on 29 November after nine days' illness and was buried with full ceremony in the Frari, the music directed by his assistant and eventual replacement at S Marco, Giovanni Rovetta. Shortly after, a memorial service was held with the music organized by Giovan Battista Marinoni (ii). Work left incomplete at his death included a ballo for Piacenza for Carnival 1643–4 (one had already been performed there on 7 February 1641), his treatise, and perhaps another Homeric opera, Ulisse errante, eventually set by Francesco Sacrati. A commemorative volume of poetry, Fiori poetici, was edited by Marinoni in 1634, including Caberloti's eulogy (fig.2).

Monteverdi may have become crotchety in old age, as is suggested by an unpleasant dispute with the singer Domenico Aldegati in June 1637. His many letters (at least 127 survive), most of them to the Mantuan court secretaries Alessandro Striggio (the librettist of Orfeo) and Ercole Marigliani (or Marliani), suggest that he could be both difficult and proud; they also contain many revealing remarks on music and musicians. However, a gentler side is apparent in his portrait by Bernardo Strozzi (now in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna, with a second version in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck), which was the model for the engraving heading the Fiori poetici. (Domenico Fetti's Ritratto di comico, once thought to be of Monteverdi, probably represents the actor Tristano Martinelli.) There is other evidence of his wit and humour, not least in his music. Certainly the poems and music dedicated to him, and the honourable mentions in treatises from Banchieri onwards, reveal his professional standing. So does the unusual number of posthumous publications, including the Messa et salmi (dedication dated 11 December 1649) and the ninth book of madrigals (27 June 1651). Poppea was also revived by the Febiarmonici in Naples in 1651. His music was copied extensively into north European and English manuscripts, and his madrigals circulated widely in contrafacta in Germany. His influence on later Baroque composers, both in Venice and further afield, awaits full documentation but was clearly considerable.

Monteverdi's elder son Francesco joined the singers of S Marco in July 1623 and appears in lists up to 1677, for all Monteverdi's attempts to have him become a lawyer. There is evidence of his performing in S Marco in Holy Week 1615 and on Christmas Eve 1618; in S Petronio, Bologna, in October 1619; in the Requiem for Grand Duke Cosimo II in 1621; and in Giovanni Felice Sances's tournament Ermiona (1636, Padua). Two short arias by him survive in Milanuzzi's Quarto scherzo delle ariose vaghezze (repr. 1624). Monteverdi's second son Massimiliano, a doctor, died in Cremona on 14 October 1661.

Monteverdi, Claudio