An opera by this composer opens with a toccata before the personification of music delivers a prologue. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this Italian composer of the earliest completely surviving opera, L’Orfeo.
ANSWER: Claudio Monteverdi
[10h] The vocal highlight of L’Orfeo is this aria that includes a call and response with the trumpet in one of its verses. Monteverdi wrote two alternative vocal lines for this aria in which Orpheus tries to convince Charon to ferry him across the Styx.
ANSWER: “Possente spirto”
[10m] Monteverdi’s last opera is set in this civilization and ends with the duet “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo.” The castrato Senesino (“say-nay-ZEE-no”) premiered the role of a ruler of this civilization who sings “Va tacito e nascosto” (“vah TAH-chee-toh ay noss-COAST-oh”) in an opera by Handel.
ANSWER: Ancient Rome [or the Roman Empire] (The operas are L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Giulio Cesare.)
<Editors, Other Fine Arts>