His theatrical works were written between 1604 and 1643 and included operas, of which three—L'Orfeo (1607), Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1640) and L'incoronazione di Poppea (1643)—have survived with their music and librettos intact.

The other three lost operas—Le nozze di Tetide, La finta pazza Licori and Armida abbandonata—were abandoned by Monteverdi before completion; how much of their music was actually written is unknown.

[16] Monteverdi felt slighted by the lack of acknowledgement from the duke for his efforts;[17] nearly 20 years later, in a letter to the Mantua court secretary Alessandro Striggio the Younger, he wrote that he had almost killed himself when writing L'Arianna in such a hurry.

[19] After a prologue, the main action begins as Venus tells Cupid that Ariadne and her lover Theseus, fleeing from Crete after his slaying of the Minotaur, will shortly arrive in Naxos.

[20] Rinuccini extended the libretto during the rehearsals, after complaints from the duchess that the piece was "too dry"; as a result the early scene between Venus and Cupid, and Jupiter's blessing from heaven, were added.

[22] A replacement had to be found rapidly, and the title role fell to Virginia Andreidi, a renowned actress-singer who used the stage name "La Florinda"; she reportedly learned the part in only six days.

[23] Federico Follino, who prepared the Mantuan court's official report on the occasion, praised the beauty of the work, the magnificence of costumes and machinery, and the sweetness of the music.

Upon Francesco's sudden death in December 1612, the dukedom passed to his brother Ferdinando, but Monteverdi was not recalled to the court and was appointed maestro di capella in August 1613 at St Mark's, Venice.

[34] Thus, late in 1616, Striggio asked him to set to music Scipione Agnelli's libretto Le nozze di Tetide, as part of the celebrations for Duke Ferdinando's forthcoming marriage to Catherine de' Medici.

This story, based on the wedding of the mythical Greek hero Peleus to the sea-goddess Thetis,[35] had previously been offered to the Mantuan court by Peri, whose setting of a libretto by Francesco Cini[36] had been rejected in 1608 in favour of L'Arianna.

On 29 December, perhaps hoping that the commission would be withdrawn, Monteverdi told Striggio that he was ready to begin work on Le Nozze di Tetide "if you tell me to do so".

[46] Monteverdi's next commission from Mantua came early in 1618, when he was asked to provide the music for Andromeda, an opera based on the ancient Greek myth of the princess chained to a rock.

[50] Monteverdi's letters during the 1618–20 period, mainly to Striggio but occasionally to Don Vincenzo or Marigliani, offer various excuses for his lack of progress on Andromeda, including his duties at St Mark's, his health, and his obligations to provide ceremonial music for the Doge (ruler) of Venice.

[53] On 9 January 1620, still with 400 lines of the Andromeda libretto to set to music, Monteverdi proposed to Striggio that the entire opera project be abandoned and the ballo substituted.

[50] An analysis of its contents reveals some influence from Rinuccini's libretto for Arianna, such as use of identical metre and length in the prologues of each work, and several common characters in the respective cast lists.

[49] Monteverdi recorded no apparent interest in the performance of Andromeda after the 1620 Carnival; the long letter that he wrote to Striggio on 13 March 1620 makes no reference to the event and is chiefly concerned with financial matters.

[60] (English: "The feigned madwoman Licori") Strozzi was a Venetian, born in 1583, whose literary works included plays and poetry as well as opera libretti; Monteverdi had first met him in 1621.

Tomlinson suggests that, mindful of Mantua's earlier cancellation of Le nozze di Tetide, Monteverdi avoided extending himself on the new project, while maintaining a diplomatic impression of activity.

Vincenzo II's death ended the main Gonzaga line; the dukedom was inherited by a distant relative, Charles of Nevers, and Mantua was subsequently engulfed in a series of conflicts, which by 1630 had reduced much of the city to ruins.

[3] (English: "The Rape of Proserpine") Proserpina rapita was the first of the theatrical works that Monteverdi wrote specifically for Venice, under a commission from Mocenigo for his daughter Giustiniana's wedding celebrations.

Symbolic rape was a common theme in wedding entertainments designed for Italian courts, intended in Carter's words "both to proclaim the power of love and to set proper bounds on female behaviour".

[85] In Strozzi's version of the story, an amorous shepherd Pachino invokes the aid of Pluto, ruler of the underworld, to cure his unrequited obsession with Proserpine.

[90] The work contained at least two sung balli,[91] one of which concluded the opera with words that provided a thinly disguised tribute to the composer: "Quanto nel chiaro mondo / su verdi arcadi monti / di te si cantari?"

[92] Redlich records that in 1644, the year following Monteverdi's death, Proserpina rapita was added to the repertory of Venice's Teatro San Moisè, but he provides no details of performances.

[95] Two of these three operas survive in complete, performable versions: Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria (1640), to a libretto by Giacomo Badoaro, and L'incoronazione di Poppea (1643) for which Giovanni Francesco Busenello provided the text.

The trilogy encompasses a historical trajectory that moves through Troy and the birth of Rome to the decline of the Roman Empire, and points forward to the foundation and ultimate glory of the Venetian Republic.

[101] In a lengthy preface Torcigliani introduces his story, taken from Virgil's epic Aeneid, as a tragedia di lieto fine (tragedy with a happy ending).

[105] Le nozze d'Enea con Lavinia was performed during the Venice Carnival of 1640–41, at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo where it alternated with a revival of Ulisse.

[108] There is no record of the Venetian public's response to the opera that, Rosand asserts, was clearly aimed at their patriotic impulses, with its final scene a celebration of "the birth and marvels of the city of Venice".

[112] As of 2022 this has not occurred; however, a setting of Rinuccini's libretto by the British composer Alexander Goehr was performed at London's Royal Opera House on 15 September 1995, under the title Arianna.