The Counter-Reformation composer Giovanni Perluigi Palestrina and his most famous mass setting, the Missa Papae Marcelli (1567), became credited in legend with having saved polyphonic music in Europe from a ban proposed by Cardinal Borromeo and the Council of Trent. The actual circumstance was that the church sought to ensure that the words of the holy text of the mass would be audible to worshipers and not drowned in layers of complex polyphonic lines. After examining some examples of polyphonic writing, including some unidentified examples by Palestrina, the notables of the Council ultimately decided that no specific ban on the compositional style was needed.

Still, it was the legend that was important to German composer Hans Pfitzner, who probably did not doubt its veracity. Indeed, Pfitzner based his opera Palestrina (1911-1915) on the romanticized version of the events, providing his own libretto. In Pfitzner's scenario, Palestrina complies with an edict from Cardinal Borromeo to ban all music in church except Gregorian chant and quits composition altogether. The spirits of nine great composers of the past appear to Palestrina in a vision and entreat him to continue. An angel then sings him the main theme of what was to become the Kyrie of the Missa Papae Marcelli. Palestrina feverishly composes a Gloria and collapses from exhaustion. His son and a pupil discover the music scattered about in sheets and gather it up, recognizing it as an inspired work. Act Two portrays the debate in the Council of Trent. In Act Three, Palestrina brings his new mass to the Pope, who is overcome with admiration, ends the Council's anti-music activities, and appoints Palestrina the director of his personal choir in the Sistine Chapel. The crowd cheers the composer, who is seen at the end of the opera seated at an organ, playing his music.

Palestrina is notable for its deeply spiritual tone, especially in the "vision" scene, the scenes in which Palestrina composes or performs, and the meeting of the composer and the Pope. Upon its appearance, the opera was wildly praised as sublime, nobly austere, and lofty. It remains very popular in the German-speaking world, though it has never caught on in opera houses elsewhere. The opera has found greater success on recordings and has enjoyed multiple performances thus. The preludes to the three acts are sometimes played in concert, either as a suite or individually.

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