Florence, September 18, 1587 – c. 1640

Was an Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet, and music teacher ofthe early Baroque era.
She was the daughter of Giulio Caccini, and was probably the most famous and influential female European composer, in any genre, between Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century and the 19th century.
Her opera, “La liberazione di Ruggiero”, was the first opera by a woman composer.
Caccini was born in Florence, most likely receiving her early musical training with her father.
Her first recorded appearance in public is as a singer at the wedding of Henry IV of France and Maria de Medici in 1600; her father took part in organizing and composing the music for the sumptuous entertainment involved.
In 1604 when the entire Caccini family visited France, Henry praised her singing effusively "you are the best singer in all of France" and asked her to stay at his court; however the Florentine officials denied his request, and she returned to Italy, where her fame continued to grow.
Shortly afterwards she attracted the attention of Claudio Monteverdi as well, who praised her singing and instrumental performance.
In 1607 she married a member of the Florentine Camerata, Giovanni Battista Signorini.
In her early life Caccini performed with her parents and brother and sister, under the name Concerto Caccini.
Later, as she became more of a virtuoso performer, she formed a Concerto delle donne (similar to the Concerto de donne of Ferrara) with her sister Settimia Caccini and the Roman performer Vittoria Archilei.
She performed in the second opera ever, Jacopo Peri's Euridice, although the parts she sang were by her father Giulio. At this time she was sometimes referred to as La Cecchina.
During this time she was also developing her skill as a composer.
In conjunction with the librettist Michelangelo Buonaroti the Younger (grand-nephew of the artist) she wrote the music for many intermedi at the Medici court, and she also began writing in the then-new form of opera.
By 1618 she was one of the highest paid employees of the court, and was receiving more than her father had.
One of her greatest successes came in 1625 when she wrote an opera for a visiting prince from Poland, Ladislaus Sigismondo (later Wladyslaw IV).
This opera, La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina, was also performed in Warsaw in 1628; this is the earliest verified performance of an Italian opera outside of Italy.
Records of her later life are sparse.
Florentine records show that a Francesca Caccini, wife of a senator, died in 1640, which would imply that she remarried if this was her; alternatively that may have been someone else, and she may have died earlier.
A death date of 1630 is given in some sources.
Francesca wrote five operas, four of which have been lost (only La liberazione di Ruggiero has survived).
Of her numerous smaller compositions, sacred, secular, vocal and instrumental, the only surviving collection is her publication of 1618, Il primo libro delle musiche, which contains pieces for one or two voices and basso continuo.
They include madrigals, canzonette, settings of sonnets, strophic variations, as well as several sacred pieces which can be classified as early Baroque motets.
In style they are monodies, and in some ways she exceeds her father in melodic and harmonic daring; clearly she was writing for her own voice, and for her own virtuoso singing capabilities much of the time.

Bibliography:

G.T. Maja Materdona: Per le virtuose donne Francesca Signorini Malespina e Adriana Basile, musiche famose (1624)
A. de la Fage: ‘La prima compositrice di opera in musica, e la sua opera’ (1847)
O. Chilesotti: ‘La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina di Francesca Caccini’ (1896)
A. Bonaventura: ‘Un ritratto della Cecchina’, Cultura musicale, no.6 (1922)
M.G. Masera: ‘Alcune lettere inedite di Francesca Caccini’,(1940)
M.G. Masera: ‘Una musicista fiorentina del seicento: Francesca Caccini’ (1941- 42)
M. Gliński: La prima stagione lirica italiana all’estero (Siena, 1943)
D. Silbert: ‘Francesca Caccini, called La Cecchina’ (1946)
R. and N. Weaver: A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater 1590–1750 (Detroit, 1978)
J.W. Hill: ‘Frescobaldi’s Arie and the Musical Circle around Cardinal Montalto’, Frescobaldi Studies, ed. A. Silbiger (Durham, NC, 1987)
S.G. Cusick: ‘Of Women, Music and Power: a Model from Seicento Florence’, Musicology and Difference, ed. R. Solie (Berkeley, 1993)
S.G. Cusick: ‘“Thinking from Women’s Lives”: Francesca Caccini after 1627’ (1993)
K.A. Harness: Amazzoni di Dio: Florentine Musical Spectacle under Maria Maddalena d’Austria and Cristina di Lorena (1620–1630) (U. of Illinois, 1996)
S.G. Cusick: ‘Who is this Woman …?’: Self-Presentation, Imitatio Virginis and Compositional Voice inFrancesca Caccini’s Primo libro of 1618’, Il saggiatore musicale (1997)
A. Solerti: Musica, ballo e drammatica alla corte medicea dal 1600 al 1637 (Firenze, 1905/R)
A.R. James; R. Savino. Francesca Caccini's Il Primo Libro Delle Musiche of 1618: A Modern Critical Edition of the Secular Monodies. Indiana University Press (November 1997)
C. Raney, "Francesca Caccini", in James R. Briscoe: Historical Anthology of Music by Women,  Indiana U. Press (1986)
C. Raney "Francesca Caccini", in Stanley Sadie: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London: Macmillan Publishers Ltd. (1980)
C. Raney, Francesca Caccini, Musician to the Medici and her Primo Libro, New York U. (1971)
Grove Music Online: www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Works:

La stiava (torneo, M. Buonarroti il giovane), Pisa, 26 Feb 1607
La mascherata delle ninfe di Senna (balletto, O. Rinuccini), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 14 Feb 1611, collab. J. Peri, M. da Gagliano, V. Archilei and S. Caccini; revived 1613 (1 recit. and trio for women’s voices by F. Caccini)
La Tancia (incidental music to commedia rusticale, Buonarroti), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 25 May 1611, revived, Monasterio di S Miniato, May 1619;  La pastorella mia  (Il primo libro delle musiche, p.58)
Il passatempo (incidental music to balletto, Buonarroti), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 11 Feb 1614, part revived, Rome, Casa Barberini, 1624 Chi desia di saper che cos’è Amore from Act.1  (Il primo libro delle musiche, p.90)
Egloga pastorale Tirsi e Filli from Act 2, io veggio i campi verdeggiar fecondi, balletto from Act. 3  (Il primo libro delle musiche, p.56)
Il ballo delle Zingane (balletto, F. Saracinelli), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 24 Feb 1615
La fiera (intermedi and incidental music, Buonarroti), Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 11 Feb 1619; choruses of Romei and Malfranzesi revived, Pesaro, carn. 1622
Canzonette in lode della Befana (A. Salvadori and Buonarotti), Florence, residence of Cosimo II, 6 Jan 1620
La serpe (G.M. Cecchi), Florence, residence of C. Picchena, 26 Feb 1620
Pastoralina, Florence, 22 July 1620
Il martirio di S Agata (J. Cicognini), Florence, Compagnia di S Giorgio in Costa, 23 Jan 1622, collab. G.B. da Gagliano
Festina (Salvadori or Tadei), Florence, loggia of Lorenzo de’ Medici, 14 Sept 1623
Allegoria della nascita di Maria Maddalena d’Austria (Salvadori or Tadei), Florence, residence of Archduchess Maria Maddalena, 7 Oct 1623
La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (commedia in musica, prol, 4 scenes, Saracinelli), Florence, Villa Poggio Imperiale, 3 Feb 1625, revived, Warsaw, 1628 (Florence, 1625), ed. Smith College Music Archives (1945)
Rinaldo innamorato, commissioned 1626, formerly owned by G. Baini, lost
Il martirio di S. Caterina (Cicognini), Florence, Compagnia di S Antonio, carn. 1627
Il primo libro delle musiche, 1–2 voices e basso continiuo (Florence, 1618 ; 7 songs transcr. in Raney (1971)
Ch’io sia fedele (1629)