Jacopo Peri (20 August 156112 August 1633), known under the pseudonym Il Zazzerino, was an Italian composer and singer of the transitional period between the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
and
Baroque styles, and is often called the inventor of opera. He wrote the first work to be called an opera today, ''
Dafne
''Dafne'' is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera. The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini survives complete; the mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragment ...
'' (around 1597), and also the first opera to have survived to the present day, ''
Euridice'' (1600).
Biography
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 ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
with
Cristofano Malvezzi
Cristofano Malvezzi (baptised June 28, 1547 – January 22, 1599) was an Italian organist and composer of the late Renaissance. He was one of the most famous composers in the city of Florence during a time of transition to the Baroque
Th ...
, 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 began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici, in the Republic of Florence during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mu ...
court around September 1588,
first as a
tenor
A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...
singer and keyboard player, and later as a composer. His earliest works were
incidental music for plays, ''
intermedi'' and
madrigals.
In the 1590s, Peri became associated with
Jacopo Corsi, the leading patron of music in Florence.
They believed contemporary art was inferior to classical
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
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 ...
and
Roman works, and decided to attempt to recreate
Greek tragedy
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic tragedy.
Greek tragedy is widely believed t ...
, as they understood it. Their work added to that of the
Florentine Camerata of the previous decade, which produced the first experiments in
monody, 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 ...
and
aria
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
. Peri and Corsi brought in the poet
Ottavio Rinuccini to write a text, and the result, ''
Dafne
''Dafne'' is the earliest known work that, by modern standards, could be considered an opera. The libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini survives complete; the mostly lost music was completed by Jacopo Peri, but at least two of the six surviving fragment ...
'', though nowadays thought to be a long way from anything the Greeks would have recognized, 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 Maria de'Medici 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
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 ...
s, a new development which went between the
aria
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
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
''La Flora, o vero Il natal de' fiori'' (Flora, or The Birth of Flowers) is an opera in a prologue and five acts composed by Marco da Gagliano and Jacopo Peri to a libretto by Andrea Salvadori. It was first performed on 14 October 1628 at the Teatr ...
'' with
Marco da Gagliano
Marco da Gagliano (1 May 1582 – 25 February 1643) was an Italian composer of the early Baroque era. He was important in the early history of opera and the development of the solo and concerted madrigal.
Life
He was born in Florence and 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. 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
Bibliography
*"Jacopo Peri", in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980.
*Carter, T. (1980). Jacopo Peri. ''Music & Letters'', ''61''(2), 121–135.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/733337
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peri, Jacopo
1561 births
1633 deaths
Renaissance composers
17th-century Italian composers
Italian Baroque composers
Italian opera composers
Italian male classical composers
Italian operatic tenors
Male opera composers
Musicians from Rome
17th-century male musicians