Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633) was an Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist of the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and early

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

periods. He wrote what is considered the first

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

, the mostly lost '' Dafne'' (), and also the earliest extant opera, '' Euridice'' (1600). He is sometimes known by the

byname An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

lo Zazzerino ().

Life and career

Jacopo di Antonio di Franceso Peri was born in either Rome or Florence to a middle-class family. Peri himself claimed to be from Rome, but considering the pro-Roman sentiments of the reigning Fernando de'Medici, it was a disadvantage to be known as a Florentine, which may have motivated Peri to lie about his true birthplace. Nonetheless, he was employed to sing at the Servite monastery of SS. Annunziati in the city of Florence. He likely received an education from the monastery school as well. Due to its size and favour with the Medici court, who attended mass each week, SS. Annunziati was a pipeline for many musical students into musical careers. Because of his talent and education, Peri was able to study in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

with Cristofano Malvezzi, and went on to work in a number of churches there, both as an organist and as a singer. He subsequently began to work in the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

court around September 1588, first as a

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

singer and keyboard player, and later as a composer. His earliest works were

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as th ...

for plays, '' intermedi'' and

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

s. In the 1590s, Peri became associated with

Jacopo Corsi Jacopo Corsi (17 July 1561 – 29 December 1602) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance music, Renaissance and early Baroque music, Baroque and one of Florence's leading patrons of the arts, after only the House of Medici, Medicis. His ...

, the leading patron of music in Florence. They believed contemporary art was inferior to classical

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and Roman works, and decided to attempt to recreate Greek tragedy, as they understood it. Their work added to that of the Florentine Camerata of the previous decade, which produced the first experiments in

monody In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melody, melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italy, ...

, the solo song style over continuo bass which eventually developed into

recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...

and

aria In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

. Peri and Corsi brought in the poet

Ottavio Rinuccini Ottavio Rinuccini (20 January 1563Firenze, Registro dei battezzati al fonte di S. Giovanni tenuto dal preposto di S. Giovanni, Registro 14, Carta 76v. – 28 March 1621) was an Italian poet, courtier, and opera libretto, librettist at the end of th ...

to write a text, and the result, '' Dafne'', is seen as the first work in a new form, opera. Rinuccini and Peri next collaborated on '' Euridice''. This was first performed on 6 October 1600 at the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

for the wedding of Princess

Marie de' Medici Marie de' Medici (; ; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as rege ...

and Henry IV. Unlike ''Dafne'', it has survived to the present day (though it is hardly ever staged, and then only as a historical curio). The work made use of

s, a new development which went between the

s and choruses and served to move the action along. Peri produced a number of other operas, often in collaboration with other composers (such as '' La Flora'' with

Marco da Gagliano Marco da Gagliano (1 May 1582 – 25 February 1643) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque music, Baroque era. He was important in the early history of opera and the development of the solo and concerted madrigal (music), madrigal. Li ...

), and also wrote a number of other pieces for various court entertainments. Few of his pieces are still performed today, and even by the time of his death, his operatic style was looking rather old-fashioned when compared to the work of relatively younger reformist composers such as

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

. Peri's influence on those later composers, however, was large.

Works

* Jacopo Peri: Ai Lettori. ''Introduzione a 'Le Musiche sopra l'Euridice, revisione e note di Valter Carignano * Jacopo Peri: ''Le Musiche sopra l'Euridice''. Revisione e Note di Valter Carignano, L'Opera Rinata, Torino

References

Citations

Sources

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External links