Italian opera "Dafne" by Jacopo Peri was the earliest composition considered opera, as understood today. Peri's works, however, did not arise out of a creative vacuum in the area of sung drama. An underlying prerequisite for the creation of opera proper was the practice of monody. Monody is the solo singing/setting of a dramatically conceived melody, designed to express the emotional content of the text it carries, which is accompanied by a relatively simple sequence of chords rather than other polyphonic parts. Italian composers began composing in this style late in the 16th century, and it grew in part from the long-standing
Jacopo del Casentino Jacopo del Casentino Jacopo del Casentino (c. 1297 – 1358) was an Italian painter, active mainly in Tuscany in the first half of the 14th century. Very little is known about this artist other than that he likely came from Casentino. Giorgio Vasari incorrectly identified him as a member of the Landini family and that is the reason why in the past he was referred to as Jacopo Landino. Vasari also incorrectly placed his origins in Arezzo. It is likely he received his training in Florence in the milieu of the Master of St Cecilia. His career appears to have