In 1613, the 46-year-old Monteverdi found himself in difficult economic circumstances. His underpaid job as maestro at the court of Mantua was on the line because the new duke was not a lover of the arts like his just-deceased predecessor. So it came in handy for Monteverdi that the position as music director of St. Mark’s Cathedral became vacant. In this important position he found the artistic and economic recognition he had been seeking. When the plague struck in 1632, he lost his son and became ill. After his recovery, under the impact of the plague epidemic, he had himself ordained a priest. Already over 70 years old, he reinvented himself once again when Venice opera opened up to secular themes and needed operas for the carnival season. The opera was independent of a court theater and was attended by a middle-class audience seeking entertainment during the carnival season. He abandoned the usual mythological material and wrote the scathing satire “L’incoronazione di Poppea.” One of the most successful creations was the Amme Arnaulta, sung by a castrato, making Monteverdi, appropriately for Venice’s carnival season in 1643 at the age of 76, the inventor of the drag queen (more on this in the digression at the bottom). The theater of the first performance, San Giovanni e Paolo, no longer exists. Shortly after the first performance of the “Incoronazione” Monteverdi died in Venice.