Barbara Strozzi

Bernardo Strozzi : A viol player (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden). The painting is believed to be a portrait of the composer Barbara Strozzi.

Barbara Strozzi (baptized August 6, 1619 in Venice , † November 11, 1677 in Padua ) was an Italian singer (soprano) and composer of the Baroque .

Life

Barbara Strozzi was born in Venice in 1619. She was the adopted daughter and probably the biological daughter of the lawyer, poet and librettist Giulio Strozzi (1583-1652), and his domestic servant, Isabella Griega. Giulio Strozzi founded the “Accademia degli Unisoni” in 1637, in front of whose members Barbara Strozzi recited and sang her own works. She set texts by her father and other members of the Venetian academies to music. In addition to her father, her musical teachers were Francesco Cavalli and Antonio Cesti .

She had four children (two sons, two daughters) with Giovanni Paolo Vidman, a 14 years older married nobleman, but did not live with him, but continued to live with her parents and children, most recently in their own house from 1650 in the Corte del Remer in Cannaregio.

Strozzi composed primarily for personal use, that is, for soprano solo. The instrumentation she prefers is for a voice, two melodic instruments and basso continuo . Her compositions show that she was familiar with the stylistic devices customary at the time; they have similarities with early opera . Above all, the virtuoso bass lines are individually designed. The treatment of dissonance often deviates from the rules of the strict sentence for the sake of the tone painting of the text. Barbara Strozzi uses the "Genere Guerriero" several times.

Works (selection)

• op. 1 - Il Primo libro di Madrigali (Venezia 1644)
• op.8 - Arie (1664) 6 cantatas, 6 Arie ed una Serenata con violini (dedicata alla duchessa Sophie de Brunswick-Lüneburg)

reception

• In 1940 Luigi Dallapiccola had Strozzi's Canzonetta Amor dormiglione for soprano and basso continuo performed in his arrangement for chamber ensemble.
• In 1994 Dietmute Zlomke recalled Strozzi's thoughts, life and work in the documentary radio play Ich, produced together with the Sephira Ensemble Stuttgart . Barbara Strozzi.
• Irene Andessner portrayed herself as Barbara Strozzi in her picture cycle Donne illustri from 2003.
• In Jochen Kelter's novel Hall or the Invention of the Stranger , Barbara Strozzi is behind the main character Mariana Caldi.
• By Russell Hoban 2007, the book was published My Tango with Barbara Strozzi.
• Georg Gräwe composed Barbara Strozzi or Die Avantgarde der Liebe as a musical theater . The world premiere in the Lucerne Theater took place in May 2010.

literature

• Joachim Steinheuer:  Strozzi, Barbara. In: MGG Online (subscription required).
• Ellen Rosand / Beth L. Glixon:  Strozzi, Barbara. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

Web links

Commons : Barbara Strozzi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Barbara Strozzi in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sheet music and audio files by Barbara Strozzi in the International Music Score Library Project
• Barbara Strozzi at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon
• Antje Tumat: Barbara Strozzi. In: Project MUGI (Music and Gender on the Internet) of the Hamburg University of Music and Theater . May 26, 2004 . 
• Dirk Kruse: Barbara Strozzi: composer and singer. (mp3 audio, 4.5 MB, 4:57 minutes) In: BR-Klassik broadcast “Keyword - Lexicon of Early Music”. November 11, 2018 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.swr.de/swr2/wissen/Barbara-Strozzi-Komponistin-und-Kurtisane-im-barocken-Venedig-Musik,swr2-wissen-2019-11-08-100.html
2. ↑ https://www.swr.de/swr2/wissen/Barbara-Strozzi-Komponistin-und-Kurtisane-im-barocken-Venedig-Musik,swr2-wissen-2019-11-08-100.html
3. ↑ Dietmar Polaczek: A denied child - on the rediscovery of a work by Luigi Dallapiccola from 1940. In: Opernwelt . February 2006, p. 21 , accessed November 11, 2018 . 
4. ↑ Description of the play and press reviews. (No longer available online.) Lucerne Theater, formerly the original ; accessed on November 11, 2018 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Bernhard Hartmann: Music theater "Barbara Strozzi" as first performance in the lamp warehouse. In: General-Anzeiger . March 18, 2011, accessed November 11, 2018 . Stefan Schmöe: Barbara Strozzi or The Avantgarde of Love - Music Theater by Georg Graewe: Listened to the radio. In: Online music magazine . March 13, 2011, accessed November 11, 2018 .