In 1637, history's very first public opera house was opened in Venice. The early success of the San Cassiano theater inspired numerous imitators, which came and went on a regular basis during much of the remainder of the seventeenth century. Ultimately, San Cassiano became one of the less important houses, but it did witness the birth of many of the operas of the most important Venetian composer of the latter half of the century, Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676). Cavalli arrived in Venice as a chorister at St. Mark's at the end of 1616, singing under the direction of Monteverdi, then maestro di cappella at the basilica. Later he became organist and finally, in 1668, took over Monteverdi's old post. Beginning in 1639, Cavalli composed over 30 operas for Venetian houses, nearly half of which received their first performance at San Cassiano. Among those that did so was Giasone, first performed on January 5, 1649. The work marked Cavalli's only collaboration with the librettist Giacinto Andrea Cicognino, who loosely based his tale on Apollonius' Argonautica. The work's structure follows the usual format of Venetian opera, with a prologue followed by three acts. As is customary, the prologue features gods who introduce the drama. Here, Apollo and Cupid debate the likely outcome of a drama which concerns the amorous intrigues of Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece. To a greater degree than was common even in Venetian opera, mythological heroes and royalty rub shoulders with comic characters drawn from the lower orders to produce a kaleidoscopic mélange of noble sentiment and low humor. Musically, Giasone is of importance for achieving what Cavalli had been edging toward in his previous operas—a distinctive separation between recitative and aria. Giasone became the most frequently performed opera of the seventeenth century; it was performed all over Italy and is the only opera known to have inspired a play. Ironically, late in the century a reaction against the opera set in among literary critics for the very reasons that audiences had enjoyed it. One writer complained that "the hotchpotch of characters brought about a total destruction of the rules of poetry." The opera was also attacked for creating a distinction between aria and recitative, thus destroying the dramatic veracity and fluidity that had been the aim of the creators of opera at the start of the century. By the turn of the eighteenth century, such sentiments were to lead directly to the reform of opera, with the development of strict division between serious and comic elements.

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