#francesca caccini

[lesser-known-composers]

Francesca Caccini (1587-1640) - Lasciatemi qui solo ·

Maria Cristina Kiehr · Jean-Marc Aymes · Concerto Soave

[bonnetsandbayonets]

Daily reminder to support and remember female composers :)

[infinitelytheheartexpands]

of course I got slammed with HW tonight even after work, so I won’t be liveblogging a filmed production but I WILL be listening to this recording while I work!

first-ever opera composed by a woman—what could be better for today?

[celebratingamazingwomen]

Francesca Caccini (1587-1641) was an Italian musician during the early Baroque era. Her only surviving stage work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is likely the oldest opera in the world by a female composer.

She was part of the Medici court as a teacher and singer, and quickly became the highest paid musician there. Although very little of her music survives, there is evidence she was a very prolific and talented composer.

[vodkasoakedoboereeds]

Happy international women’s day! To celebrate I’d like to write a lil bit about a bomb-ass seventeenth-century feminist, Francesca Caccini (1587-c.1641).

Francesca Caccini was immersed in the musical scene of early-baroque ideologies since her childhood. From a young age she, her sisters, her mother, and later her stepmother performed in numerous court specticals under the direction of her father, the famed Giulio Caccini. Francesca Caccini was musically trained by her father and excelled not only as a singer but as an instrumentalist and poet. By Caccini’s teens, her father decided to have her educated in subjects such as maths and sciences in which she excelled. Of particular interest was Caccini’s draw to geometry which she would later use in her powerfully feminine Il Libro Primo delle Musiche. Serving primarily women the Medici court, Caccini was able to explore feminist politics through her compositions. With this, both of Caccini’s surviving publications (her primo libro and La liberazione di Ruggiero) feature unique ways to portray femininity. In the mid-1620s Caccini became the highest paid musician on the Medici payroll.

Francesca Caccini’s Il Libro delle Musiche is a subtle work of genius. The book was used to teach young virtuosas every modern genre they would need to know and utilizes Neoplatonic number theory throughout the structure and tonal plan exuding shameless femininity and feminine power. Due to the widely held belief at the time that the type of music you perform will greatly influence the person you become, it is likely that the book was meant to teach not only singing, but to teach girls to claim their own subjectivity rather than allowing society to treat them as objects. Additionally it is likely that this book was a step toward preparing the public for an all female co-regency of the Medici court.

Francesca Caccini’s only other surviving work is an opera (or balleto as she described) entitled La liberazione di Ruggiero. Composed for the 1624-5 festival season, this opera directly addresses fears of the Tuscan public regarding the female co-regency of the time, including the fear of homo-eroticism between the two women - the only fear to remain unresolved by the end of the opera. The music Caccini wrote for this opera depicts femininity, female power, and female oppression in incredibly brilliant and unique ways which persuade listeners further than text ever could. The most noted and certainly the most obvious depiction of gender is her use of tonality; harsh sharp keys for men, soft flat keys for women, and C major (no sharps or flats) for the bi-gender sorcerer, Melissa.

Women in music are severely underrepresented to this day (I am literally in 7 classes and have only one female prof). When asked about female composers of the past, most classical musicians are unable to name anyone beyond Hildegard of Bingen, Barbara Strozzi, Fanny Mendelssohn, or Clara Schumann. The continuously rising scholarship on female musicians is a necessary means to reconcile the seeming lack of female contribution to music. Francesca Caccini is definitely one of the more well-known early female composers, often noted as the first female opera composer in music history textbooks under “hey there were a few women and I guess we should include some” type sections but not many know of her genius musical contributions to the feminist movement so this is my small public piece on this to celebrate international women’s day :)

DEFINITELY RECOMMEND READING CUSICK’S ARTICLES ON FRANCESCA CACCINI. MOST INFO IN MY SECOND PARAGRAPH IS FROM CUSICK’S “This Music which is not One” AND MUCH OF MY 3RD PARAGRAPH IS FROM HER “La liberazione di Ruggiero amid the Politics of Regency” AND “Performance, Musical Design, and Politics in La liberazione di Ruggiero”. CAROLYN RANEY ALSO HAS SOME GREAT WORKS ABOUT FRANCESCA CACCINI. The rest of this info I believe to be common knowledge among those educated about Francesca Caccini and has been found in just about every essay/article about her.

[lovingsabotage]

“Ch’amor sia nudo” - Francesca Caccini

[verdiprati]

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: Prina in Vivaldi; Coote, Rice, et al. in Adès; and Caccini’s “Liberazione”

Mostly Mezzo Mondays: a recurring (though not weekly) feature where, on Monday nights, I blog a list of the upcoming broadcasts that have caught my eye on World Concert Hall. My interests: baroque vocal music, art song recitals, and a list of favorite singers.

Sonia Prina sings the title role in a new production of Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso to be video livestreamed from La Fenice. The director is Fabio Ceresa; more production details here. Tuesday, April 17 on Culturebox.

I’m not familiar with any of the performers in this broadcast of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, but I might listen just because we don’t get a whole lot of performances of this early opera by a female composer. Tuesday, April 17 on France Musique.

Just to pick out a couple of mezzo names from the outstanding, mostly British ensemble cast, you can hear Alice Coote and Christine Rice among many others in a deferred broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera revival of Adès’ The Exterminating Angel. Saturday, April 21 on WQXR. 

[norelorn]

Versate occhi from the opera La Liberazione di Rugierro (Francesca Caccini 1587-1641).

Basically this is the story of a wicked witch who turns a soldier into a sex slave and a gentle witch comes to rescue him. 

Who said opera is boring?