Chapter XVIII

The Birth of Opera

Festival plays and intermezzi--Dreary character of music in plays--Influence of Greek learning--Attempt to resuscitate the dramatic declamation of the Greeks--Galilei and his "Ugolino"--Caccini's Nuove Musiche--Peri's setting of "Daphne"--Production of Rinuccini and Peri's "Eurydice"--The character of the new music.

The modern opera was the result of a deliberate attempt to revive the Greek drama, and that attempt was caused chiefly by dissatisfaction with the music of medieval festival plays. The direction of the attempt was guided by the revival of Greek learning in Italy, a revival of which the reader has already been informed in