Francesca Caccini

Francesca Caccini (Italian: [franˈtʃeska katˈtʃiːni]; 18 September 1587 – most likely between 1641 and 1645) was an Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet, and music teacher of the early Baroque era. She was also known by the nickname La Cecchina [la tʃekˈkiːna], given to her by the Florentines and probably a diminutive of Francesca. She was the daughter of Giulio Caccini. Her only surviving stage work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is widely considered the oldest opera by a woman composer. As a female composer she helped to solidify the agency and the cultural and political programs of her female patron. Caccini was born in Florence on September 18, 1587. She received a humanistic education (Latin, some Greek, as well as modern languages and literature, mathematics) in addition to early musical training with her father. According to Liliana Panella, the first well-founded testimony of Francesca's singer's activity, together with her sister Settimia, at the Medici court, is 1602: in his diary Cesare Tinghi notes that on 3 April 1602 St. Nicholas church in Pisa, where the court moved every year during Lent, polychoral music was directed by "Giulio Romano, having the wife (the second wife, Margherita) and the two daughters singing well". In her early life, Caccini performed with her parents, her half-brother Pompeo, her sister Settimia, and possibly other unnamed Caccini pupils in an ensemble contemporaries referred to as le donne di Giulio Romano. She most likely would sing in the 1600 production of L’Euridice, an opera which had sections by her father, sung by his students (most of the music was composed by Jacopo Peri).