Sunday, January 15, 2006

Italians

Cecilia came up with a couple of names I hadn't heard of in a recent interview:

Alessandro Striggio Now this guy is in wikipedia (c.1540 - 1592) as the inventor of the madrigal comedy, which is the precursor of opera. If I recall correctly, this is a dramatic piece in madrigal style which might even be staged, but contains no monody, the speech-like solo with continuo singing that was invented by the camarata and marks the beginning of true opera.

Giulio Strozzi Answers.com says: "(b Venice, 1583; d there, 31 March 1652). Italian librettist. He was one of the poets involved in the creation of Venetian opera. Among his librettos are La finta puzza Licori (set by Monteverdi,1627), La finta pazza (Sacrati,1641) and Veremonda (Cavalli,1652). A number of his smaller-scale texts were also set by Venetian composers. Barbara Strozzi was his adopted daughter; the composer and Camerata member Piero Strozzi (c 1550-1610), an amateur musician who fostered new music through the Camerata, was a relative of his."

If I make a list of 20 or 30 Italian composers, she makes a list with people not in my list. This is just to aggravate me.

1 comment:

Alex said...

Guilio Strozzi (1583-1652); poet and librettist, member of a prominent Florentine family, adoptive father of the singer Barbara Strozzi. Trained in law, spent the last three decades of his carreer in Venice. Member of the libertine Accademia degli Incogniti and founder of the Accademia degli Unisoni in 1637 (for which Monteverdi provided music). Wrote librettos for Cavalli, Manelli, Monteverdi ('La finta pazza Licori',1627; 'Proserpina raptia',1630) and Sacrati, plus smaller-scale occasional verse (e.g. 'I cinque fratelli', set by Monteverdi and performed in Venice before Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici on 8 April 1628).
-- Monteverdi, by Denis Arnold