🎧 The First Woman to Write an Opera
Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧 • 37m
Francesca Caccini (1587-c.1641) is one of the forgotten women of classical music. She was an exceptional singer and instrumentalist, but above all, an immensely talented composer. Working full time at the Medici court from the age of 20, Caccini became one of its best paid employees. Many of her compositions have been lost, but her only surviving stage work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is considered to be the oldest opera by a woman composer.
In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb finds out more about this great and neglected composer from biographer Dr. Anna Beer and Deborah Roberts, Artistic Director of the Brighton Early Music Festival.
The podcast features excerpts of Caccini's music from Ars Lyrica Houston's programme, Italian Sirens, recorded in Zilkha Hall, Hobby Centre for the Performing Arts, Houston, Texas, 12 November 2017 with Sydney Anderson (soprano), Cecilia Duarte (mezzo-soprano) and Matthew Dirst (Artistic Director). Audio courtesy of Ars Lyrica Houston.
Keep up to date with everything early modern, from Henry VIII to the Sistine Chapel with our Tudor Tuesday newsletter: https://www.historyhit.com/sign-up-to-history-hit/?utm_source=timelinenewsletter&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Timeline+Podcast+Campaign
To download, go to Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.historyhit&hl=en_GB&gl=US or Apple store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/history-hit/id1303668247
Up Next in Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧
-
🎧 The Fall of France 1940: How it Inf...
Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked U.S. leaders rushed to back the Vichy government despite their Nazi sympathies. This policy caused instability at home whilst also driving a wedge between the allied nations.
In this episode, Dan is joined by war historian Michael S. Neiberg to dis...
-
🎧 Early Medieval Ireland
The dynamics in everyday life in the Medieval period may seem drastically different compared to how we live today. From traditions, gender, power, and religion, advancements in the present seem rapid. But do we have more in common with those of the past than we realise? In this episode of Gone Me...
-
🎧 The Tudors: Portraits, Power and Po...
Visitors to the Holburne Museum in Bath are having a close encounter with the most familiar faces in English history. A stunning exhibition, The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics, includes some of the most iconic Tudor portraits, evoking that torrid era of religious conflict and political intri...