Monteverdi's lost operas comprise seven of the ten operas written or part-written by the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi(pictured) between 1607 and 1643, during the early baroque period. Apart from a few fragments, the music for these seven works has been lost, though in some cases the librettos have survived. Opera as a genre emerged during Monteverdi's creative lifetime, and he became a principal exponent of this new form, first at the Mantuan court and later as director of music at St Mark's Basilica in Venice. The loss of these works, written during a critical period of early opera history, has been much regretted by historians and musicologists, but reflects the habit of the times, when stage music was thought to have little relevance beyond its initial performance and often vanished quickly. Contemporary documents, including many letters written by Monteverdi, have provided most of the available information on the lost works, and have established that four of them were completed and performed in the composer's lifetime. Of the little music that has survived, the lamento from L'Arianna (1608) is well known as a concert piece and is frequently performed. (more...)
Fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi(pictured) is sentenced in absentia by a Baghdad court to death for his involvement in the murder of two people.
The Chess Olympiad concludes with Armenia winning the open and Russia winning the women's section of the tournament.
1946 – While riding a train to Darjeeling, Sister Teresa Bojaxhiu, later Mother Teresa, experienced what she later described as "the call within the call", directing her "to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them".
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