In May and June 1608, all Europe gaped at the splendid wedding festivities planned by the court of Mantua. The Duke of Mantua, Vicenzo I Gonzaga, was celebrating the union of his son Prince Francesco Gonzaga to the "Serenissima Infanta," Duchess Margherita of Savoy. To honor the couple and showcase the magnificence of his own court, the Duke sought the service of many of Italy's greatest artists. There would be music by Marco da Gagliano and by the Duke's own chief musician, the renowned Claudio Monteverdi, and theater by the leading poets of Italy: Michelangelo Buonarotti, Battista Guarini, and Ottavio Rinuccini. The latter poet collaborated with Monteverdi to produce a pastoral tragedy entirely in music, Arianna. First performed on May 28, 1608, Monteverdi's and Rinuccini's Arianna excited immediate and lavish praise from its audience; both the Venetian and Ferrarese ambassadors lauded the operatic play, noting the special power of one piece, the Lamento d'Arianna.

In the opera, Ariadne sings the lament "Lasciatemi morire" upon waking one morning on the island of Crete and discovering that her hero and lover Theseus has abandoned her overnight. She sings a series of five ariosi in the new style of monody; a quasi-pastoral chorus of fishermen interpolate reflections on her despair in between each. Monteverdi himself considered the Lamento d'Arianna the most essential part of his drama; he reveals in a later letter that he felt this piece was the greatest challenge to his powers of musical "imitation." Throughout, he places great and affective demands on the solo singer, from chromaticism to daring tritone and seventh leaps. Carefully shaped melodic peaks and valleys carry the singer's emotion in waves. Monteverdi's intent seems to have been to produce the most physically affective piece of dramatic music possible; his success may be measured in the Lamento's later popularity.

Unfortunately, the Lamento d'Arianna is today the only surviving music from the entire opera. Its very survival, however, gives further testimony to its vast popularity. Monteverdi published the lament separately in 1623, and arranged it twice (once as a five-voiced madrigal and once as a sacred contrafactum, his Pianto della Madonna from the Selva Morale e Spirituale). Numerous other composers either arranged his piece, or emulated it in their own laments; by 1650 it was said that no household that had "harpsichords or theorbos therein, did not have this lament."

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