Livia d'Arco (c. 1565–1611) was an Italian singer in the court of

Alfonso II d'Este Alfonso II d'Este (24 November 1533 – 27 October 1597) was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este. Biography He was the elder son of Ercole II d'Este and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of Franc ...

Ferrara Ferrara (, ; egl, Fràra ) is a city and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital of the Province of Ferrara. it had 132,009 inhabitants. It is situated northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream ...

Biography

She was sent there with the household of Margherita Gonzaga d'Este at the time of Margherita's marriage to Alfonso in 1579, and was a young woman at the time, around fifteen. Livia was the daughter of a minor

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

n nobleman from Arco family, and was perhaps sent to the court in Ferrara because of her musical potential. When she arrived, she began studying the

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

with Luzzasco Luzzaschi and

Ippolito Fiorini Ippolito Fiorini (c. 1549–1621) was a composer and lutenist, and the '' maestro di capella'' at the court of Alfonso II d'Este in Ferrara during its entire existence (1568–1597). As ''maestro di capella'' his role was largely an administrat ...

. After a few years of study she joined Laura Peverara,

Tarquinia Molza Tarquinia Molza Tarquinia Molza (1 November 1542 – 8 August 1617) was an Italian singer, poet, conductor, composer, and natural philosopher. She was considered a great ''virtuosa''. She was involved with the famous ''Concerto delle donne'', alt ...

and

Anna Guarini Anna Guarini, Contessa Trotti (1563 – 3 May 1598) was an Italian virtuoso singer of the late Renaissance. She was one of the most renowned singers of the age, and was one of the four '' concerto di donne'' at the Ferrara court of the d'Este f ...

in the ''

Concerto delle donne The ''concerto delle donne'' (; also ''concerto di donne'' or ''concerto delle (or di) dame'') was a group of professional female singers in the late Italian Renaissance, primarily in the court of Ferrara, Italy. Renowned for their technical an ...

''; the first record of her singing with them was in 1582. Like the other members of the ''Concerto'', poems were written in her honor, specifically by

Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso ( , also , ; 11 March 154425 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem ''Gerusalemme liberata'' ( Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between ...

and Angelo Grillo under the pseudonym Livio Celiano. In 1585 she was married to Count Alfonso Bevilacqua.

References

* 1560s births 1611 deaths Italian women singers 16th-century Italian singers 16th-century Italian women singers {{Italy-singer-stub