Jacopo Peri
1561-1633 Composer and singer
Peri was born in Rome but moved to Florence at an early age. He sang and
played organ, and by 1588 was employed at the Medici court. Peri is often associated with development of the Florentine Camerata, but their is no direct evidence that he was actually a member of the group. Peri met with anothe
r group at the home of Jacopo Corsi. Peri, along with Giulio Caccini and Emilio de' Cavalieri strove for a type of singing style between speech and song. This new style, developed by Caccini was called stile recitativo and was
valued for the fact that the music did not obscure the text. Peri wrote the music for the first opera- La Dafne-performed at Jacopo Corsi's Palazzo during the 1597 carnival. The music for this opera is entirely lost, but his later opera, Euridice, is the
first complete opera to survive. Peri not only composed, but also sang in these important productions. Peri is thus an important figure in Florentine music due to his contributions to opera, a genre that was born in Florence and survives as one of the gr
eat art forms.
Sources:
Sadie, Stanley,
ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1980 ed.
London: Macmillan Publishers Limited. S.v. "Peri, Jacopo," by Giovanni
Carli Ballola.
Image:
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
1980 ed.
London: Macmillan Publishers Limited. S.v. "Peri, Jacopo." p.402.