Francesca Caccini

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Francesca Caccini

Francesca Caccini (born September 18, 1587 in Florence , † 1640 ibid) was an Italian opera singer ( soprano ), composer and instrumentalist . She is one of the pioneers of the opera genre. Her (ballet) opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (1625) is considered the earliest surviving opera by a woman composer.

Life

Francesca Caccini received her first musical training from her father Giulio Caccini (1551-1618) in singing and lute . In 1600, at the age of 13, she first appeared as a singer in Florence. The opera Euridice was performed by Jacopo Peri with interspersed parts from her father's opera Euridice . There is a letter from Claudio Monteverdi to Cardinal Ferdinand von Gonzaga, in which he emphasizes her excellent singing and playing of harpsichord, lute and guitar.

From September 1604 to June 1605, the Caccini family made a concert tour to the court of Henry IV in Paris at the request of Queen Maria de 'Medici . The five-part family ensemble Giulio and Margherita (parents), as well as Francesca, Settima and Pompeo (siblings) sang in Modena, Milan, Turin and Lyon. Francesca was offered a permanent position in Paris, but the Grand Duke Ferdinando I de 'Medici ordered the family back to Florence. Florence was one of the most important cultural centers at that time. Francesca retained her court position until 1627.

Francesca Caccini - called La Cecchina (songbird) - was one of the best singers of her time. She accompanied herself on the harpsichord, the lute and the guitar. When her father died in 1618, she was next to Jacopo Peri the most important and best-paid musician at the Medici court in Florence.

The compositional work

The earliest reference to her compositional work is a letter dated September 10, 1606 to the poet Michelangelo Buonarroti . In it, Francesca thanks for the delivery of poems that she wanted to set to music and asks for more. During this time, her father Giulio Caccini reported on three volumes with 300 vocal pieces by his daughter. In 1607 her first stage work La Stiava was performed. Seven more followed by 1625, including a sacred work - most of them written for the Carnival in Florence. Of Caccini's works, only the first prints of Il primo libro delle musiche a una e due voce , Florence, Zanobi Pignoni (1618) and the ballet opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina have survived . Florence, Pietro Cecconcelli (1625). In addition to the vocal passages, this opera includes instrumental, danced interludes.

Works

Lost stage works:

  • La Stiava , text: Michelangelo Buonarroti d. J. (Carnival 1607, Florence)
  • La mascherata delle ninfe di Senna , text: Ottavio Rinuccini (Florence 1611)
  • La Tancia , text: Michelangelo Buonarroti d. J. (Florence 1611)
  • Il passatempo , text: Buonarroti d. J. (February 11, 1614, Florence), received a number
  • Il ballo delle Zigane , ballet, text: Ferdinando Saracinelli (February 24, 1615, Florence)
  • La fiera , text: Buonarroti d. J. received (February 11, 1619, Florence), music together with Marco da Gagliano

Spiritual work (lost):

  • Il martirio di Sant'Agata , intermediate, text: Jacopo Cicognini (1622 Florence), some parts have been preserved

Collection for singing with figured bass accompaniment (preserved):

  • Il primo libro delle musiche a una e due voci , 32 sacred and secular solo chants and four duets (printed in Florence 1618)

Received opera:

To the reception of the ballet opera La liberazione di Ruggiero

This opera is the earliest and first (preserved) that a woman composed. The commissioner in honor of a high Polish guest was Maria Magdalena of Austria (1589–1631) , the widow of Cosimo II. De 'Medici . The composer created the libretto together with the librettist Ferdinando Saracinelli. It premiered on February 2, 1625 in the Comedy Hall of the Villa Poggio Imperiale in Florence in front of the Tuscan aristocracy. Eva Weissweiler gives an impression of this kind of total work of art in a descriptive description of the prologue of this opera based on the German translation by George Hickenlooper. Vittoria Archilei, Settima Caccini and her sister Francesca sing madrigals that they have composed themselves in the “most pleasant and loveliest style”. At the end they unite to form an “Ottava” composed by Francesca. […] These nymphs are portrayed by the best singers of the Tuscan court .

The score was printed in the same year (1625), which facilitated the transmission of the opera. Another performance in Poland itself took place a few years later.

Reviews

There were two controversial reviews of this work at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century: First, the very positive review by August Wilhelm Ambros in his history of music from 1878 , which rose to the expression “genius” for the composer. At the beginning of the 20th century Hugo Goldschmidt negated these statements of his predecessor in his studies on the history of Italian opera in the 17th century "with a sharpness that has hardly anything to do with scientific objectivity" (Eva Weissweiler).

Re-performances (selection)

Detailed listing in Fischer 2015 → La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina

  • In 1959 the opera La liberazione di Ruggiero was performed at the Hovingham Festival
  • On the occasion of the International Women Composers Festival in 1980 the ballet opera was performed again by the Cologne Opera, directed by Andrea von Ramm . The mentor of the performance was the conductor Elke Mascha Blankenburg .
  • In October 1990 the ballet opera was performed again. The executors were Julia Henning ("Alcina"), Knut Schoch ("Ruggiero") and others. a. Soloists, the Fontana d'Israel chamber choir and an ensemble with historical instruments. Musical director: Isolde Kittel-Zerer , staging: Christa Leiffheidt , stage design: Matthias Moebius , costumes: Ralf Christmann . Location: entrance hall and staircase of the Museum of Hamburg History, Holstenwall, Hamburg.
  • A recording of the opera is currently available (2017): Here the role of Alcina has Elena Biscuola, Mauro Borgioni sings Ruggiero and Gabriella Martellacci appears as Melissa. Elena Sartori is in charge.

Other works

  • Rinaldo innamorato (not printed);

literature

  • Christine Fischer (ed.): La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina. Rooms and productions in Francesca Caccini's ballet opera (Florence, 1625), Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-0340-1273-7 .
  • Suzanne G. Cusick: Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court. Music and the Circulation of Power. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2009, ISBN 978-0-226-13212-9 .
  • Liliana Pannella:  Caccini, Francesca, detta la Cecchina. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 16:  Caccianiga-Caluso. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1973, pp. 19-23.
  • Anna Beer : Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music . Oneworld, 2016 ISBN 9781780748566
  • Eva Weissweiler : Francesca Caccini and the composers of the Italian early baroque . In: Same: Women Composers from the Middle Ages to the Present. A history of culture and impact in biographies and work examples . Revised new edition from 1981: dtv 1999, ISBN 3-423-30726-9 , Bärenreiter 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1410-0
  • Caccini, Francesca . In: Large song dictionary . 2000, p. 3491ff.
  • John Walter Hill:  Caccini, Francesca. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 3 (Bjelinski - Calzabigi). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1113-6 , Sp. 1536–1538 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Christa Leiffheidt : La liberazione di ruggiero dall 'isola d'alcina: the first opera by a composer, Francesca Caccini, la cecchina (approx. 1581 - approx. 1640); Florence 1625 - Hamburg 1990, an examination of the first and second production of this musical drama . Thesis. Hamburg, University of Music and Theater, 1993

Web links

Commons : Francesca Caccini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Eva Weissweiler: Francesca Caccini and the composers of the Italian early baroque . In: Women composers from the Middle Ages to the present . Bärenreiter, DTV, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-30726-9 , p. 84.
  2. ↑ Danielle Roster: Francesca Caccini (1587 - 1645?) . In: Clara Mayer (Ed.): Approach IX - to seven female composers . Furore-Verlag, Kassel 1998, ISBN 3-927327-43-3 , pp. 7-20.
  3. ^ John Walter Hill:  Caccini, Francesca. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 3 (Bjelinski - Calzabigi). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1113-6 , Sp. 1536–1538, here Sp. 1536 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  4. ↑ According to Weissweiler 1999, p. 92/93, this publication is the most extensive by a single composer in the early days of monody.
  5. ^ Eva Weissweiler: Francesca Caccini and the composers of the Italian early baroque . 1999, pp. 79-98, especially pp. 79 and 85/86.
  6. ^ Alois Maria Nagler: Theater Festivals of the Medici 1539–1637 . Translation by George Hickenlooper. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964, pp. 116ff.
  7. ↑ Eva Weissweiler 1999, p. 79, with footnote p. 97.
  8. ↑ August Wilhelm Ambros: History of Music Vol. IV, Leipzig 1878 (posthumously), after Weissweiler pp. 408-412.
  9. ^ Hugo Goldschmidt: Studies on the history of Italian opera in the 17th century . Leipzig 1901–1904.
  10. ^ Eva Weissweiler 1999, p. 88.
personal data
SURNAME Caccini, Francesca
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian opera singer (soprano), composer and instrumentalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1587
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH 1640
Place of death Florence