Well , Julius Caesar , Hamlet , Othello , King Lear , Macbeth and Anthony and Cleopatra . Claude Monteverdi's Orfeo , regarded as the first masterpiece in opera history, is performed and revolutionizes music by establishing a tonal system and giving the recitative a more flexible accompaniment. Teatro Farnese in Parma, Italy, uses the proscenium arch for the first time. Venice becomes the home of the first public opera house, the San Cassiano Theater. Following the civil war of 1642, the Puritans close or burn down all English theaters and forbid acting.
Women start appearing in French and English plays.
Elizabeth Barry and Anne Bracegirdle are among the pioneers. William Darby's Ye Bare and Ye Cubb , reportedly the first English-language play presented in the colonies, is performed in Accomac County, Virginia. Pierre Beauchamps codifies the five foot positions in ballet. Pierre Beauchamps and Jean Baptiste write Le Triomphe de I'Ammour , which features LaFontaine, the first woman to dance professionally in a ballet. Alessandro Scarlatti founds the Neapolitan School of Opera, which establishes the da capo, or three-part aria.