The fact that no contemporary accounts credit Monteverdi with the musical setting of Francesco Busenello's L'incoronazione di Poppea creates a number of problems in analyzing the work's stylistic unity. An important consideration, however, is that Monteverdi may have been one of a number of composers collaborating in the composition of Poppea, rather than its sole musical contributor. Many of the work's musical qualities demonstrate characteristics of a younger post-Monteverdian generation. Of a number of possible collaborators, Benedetto Ferrari and Francesco Sacrati seem to be the most likely candidates. Indeed, two sinfonie in Poppea can be located in an altered (or borrowed) form in Sacrati's La finta pazza, while "Pur ti miro" from the opera's last scene can be textually (and possibly musically) connected to Ferrari. Thus, Sacrati and Ferrari figure as the potential composers of the many anomalous sections of Monteverdi's last Venetian opera and, most significantly, its last scene.

Works: Monteverdi (and others?): L?incoronazione di Poppea (23-54); Francesco Sacrati: La finta pazza (43-51).

Sources: Francesco Sacrati: La finta pazza (32, 43-51); Benedetto Ferrari (?):"Pur ti miro" (41-43, 51-52); Monteverdi (and others?): L?incoronazione di Poppea (45-46).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi