Focusing on the dynamic correlation between Venetian characteristics and the success of public opera, the paper first begins by exploring how the Venetian composer like Francesco Cavalli came to dominate the operatic world of Venice, which came into b...
Focusing on the dynamic correlation between Venetian characteristics and the success of public opera, the paper first begins by exploring how the Venetian composer like Francesco Cavalli came to dominate the operatic world of Venice, which came into being initially by the foreigners like Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Manelli. Then it goes on to elaborate on the Venetian political system and the international situation of the early seventeenth-century Europe, which motivated Venetian intelligents to use opera as political propaganda. Finally it discusses a severally distorted view toward woman reflected in the early Venetian opera that can be attributed to its political structure from which the female was totally eliminated. Accademia degli Incogniti, the members of which mostly consisted of upper-class Venetian male figures and were main producers of operatic libretti of the time, contributed to assimilating such distorted view into opera. The purpose of the current paper has been to illuminate distinctive characteristics of the operatic genre controlled by diverse extramusical elements by examining early seventeenth-century Venetian opera.