“In the long run, I shall be happier to be moderately praised in the new style, than greatly praised in the ordinary,” Monteverdi wrote to Giovanni Doni in 1633. What he did was, in the early part of the seventeenth century, help to define the music, drama and “language” of modern classical music. “L’orfeo” may not be the first opera, but it is still a part of the contemporary repertoire. His evolutions caused ructions, fights with Artusi, and the creation of what he calls the “seconda practtica”. I leave it at that for now: here’s the video.