A contemporary of Shakespeare and Monteverdi, and a colleague of Galileo and Artemisia Gentileschi at the Medici court, Francesca Caccini was a dominant musical figure there for thirty years. Dazzling listeners with the transformative power of her performances and the sparkling wit of the music she composed for more than a dozen court theatricals, Caccini is best remembered today as the first woman to have composed opera. Francesca Caccini at the Medici Court reveals for the first time how this multitalented composer established a fully professional musical career at a time when virtually no other women were able to achieve comparable success. Suzanne G. Cusick argues that Caccini’s career depended on the usefulness of her talents to the political agenda of Grand Duchess Christine de Lorraine, Tuscany’s de facto regent from 1606 to 1636. Drawing on Classical and feminist theory, Cusick shows how the music Caccini made for the Medici court sustained the culture that enabled Christine’s power, thereby also supporting the sexual and political aims of its women. In bringing Caccini’s surprising story so vividly to life, Cusick ultimately illuminates how music making functioned in early modern Italy as a significant medium for the circulation of power.

Francesca Caccini (1587--ca.1640) was an accomplished composer, singer, and instrumentalist in the tradition of the Florentine Camerata. Her 1618 volume Il primo libro delle musiche was dedicated to her patron the Cardinal de' Medici (1596--1666). This modern critical edition presents 17 secular monodies for one and two voices with figured bass accompaniment from this landmark collection. The book includes text translations, biographical and stylistic essays, recommendations on performance practice, and other commentary.

A companion to the Classic FM series Francesca Caccini. Barbara Strozzi. Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. Marianna Martines. Fanny Hensel. Clara Schumann. Lili Boulanger. Elizabeth Maconchy. Since the birth of classical music, women who dared compose have faced a bitter struggle to be heard. In spite of this, female composers continued to create, inspire and challenge. Yet even today so much of their work languishes unheard. Anna Beer reveals the highs and lows experienced by eight composers across the centuries, from Renaissance Florence to twentieth-century London, restoring to their rightful place exceptional women whom history has forgotten.

Newly-discovered evidence underpins this comprehensive account of the creation and staging of the earliest surviving 'opera', Euridice.

Though rarely included in traditional music history, women have a remarkable tradition as composers of Western music. This book brings together musical and biographical material on twenty-five women, from the eleventh through the twentieth centuries. Each chapter focuses on one composer, providing an introduction to her life, an analysis of her music, a checklist of her works, and a bibliography. Extensive appendices include a historical outline showing female composers in relation to their more famous male contemporaries by period and genre, and suggestions for further readings and recordings.