Francesca Caccini receives her first appointment at the Medici Court, presented by Donald Macleod.

Francesca Caccini has been hailed as the first female composer to write an opera. However this isn’t necessarily true. The work in question, La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, was written for the theatre and is almost entirely sung, but academics now believe that this is not an opera. What we do know is that Francesca Caccini was the daughter, sister, wife and mother of a family of singers, and was one of the most prolific composers of her time. She was employed at the Medici court in Florence in the early seventeenth century, and rose to become the highest paid musician on the Medici payroll. This week Donald Macleod explores the life and music of Francesca Caccini and her circle, such as her father Giulio Caccini, and other composers including Jacopo Peri, Lorenzo Allegri, and Marco da Gagliano.

Francesca Caccini and her family were well received at the French court and King Henry IV declared that Francesca was the best singer in all of France. An offer was made to Giulio Caccini for Francesca and her sister to remain in France, but their father was keen that the entire family should return to Florence. Once back in Italy Giulio wasted no time in promoting the family’s success in France, in order to secure Francesca’s future. By 1607 she received her first official appointment as a musician to the Medici court which was then largely controlled by the Grand Duchess, Christine de Lorraine. Upon Francesca’s appointment, the Grand Duchess arranged a marriage for her new employee to a singer called Giovanni Battista Signorini. Caccini’s contract to the Medici gave her many responsibilities, including performing as a singer and as an instrumentalist both at court and for church services, composing new music and preparing it for performances, as well as teaching music to some of the Medici children.

Lasciatemi qui solo
Flavio Ferri-Benedetti, countertenor
Il Profondo

Ciaccona, arr. Luigi Cozzolino
Cappella di Santa Maria degli Angiolini
Gian Luca Lastraiolo, theorbo and conductor

Romanesca, arr. Luigi Cozzolino
Cappella di Santa Maria degli Angiolini
Gian Luca Lastraiolo, theorbo and conductor

Io mi distruggo and ardo
Olga Pitarch, soprano
Marco Horvat, tenor & theorbo

Su le piume de’venti trionfator
Shannon Mercer, soprano
Amanda Keesmaat, cello
Luc Beauséjour, organ

Lorenzo Allegri
La notte d’Amore
Gran Consort Li Stromenti
Gian Luca Lastraioli, conductor

Francesca Caccini
La pastorella
Shannon Mercer, soprano
Sylvain Bergeron, guitar
Amanda Keesmaat, cello
Luc Beauséjour, harpsichord

Lorenzo Allegri
Le ninfe di Senna
Gran Consort Li Stromenti
Gian Luca Lastraioli, conductor

Francesca Caccini
Non sò se quel sorriso
Shannon Mercer, soprano
Sylvain Bergeron, guitar
Amanda Keesmaat, cello
Luc Beauséjour, harpsichord

Producer Luke Whitlock Show less