Not Just Pretty Faces: Caccini Sisters The Early Music Show 5th March

[doversoul1]

Giulio Caccini was one of the most successful composers and highly renowned singers of his age. But lesser known are his two daughters, Francesca and Settimia Caccini. Both women were highly accomplished singers in their own right, and composers as well, and they both rose to become the highest paid members of their respective courts. Francesca also holds another claim to fame, as the first ever female composer of an opera, and she has been lauded as the most important female composer between the 11th Century Hildegard of Bingen and the 19th Century. Lucie Skeaping investigates the lives of these two extraordinary women.

The Early Music Show on top form.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t6z71

However, this is the second repeat in a year, and there are rather a lot of repeats lately. It worries me rather.

[doversoul1]

Most of the Francesca Caccini’s vocal works come from this disk but does not seem to be available from Amazon UK. This is where a programme like The Early Music Show is, I think, very valuable. I mean this is a world away from The Chart.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Sept10/Caccini_OVivaRosa_Analekta_AN29966.htm

[greenilex]

Loved this programme - thanks for the pointer. Especially interesting, I thought, were the "rustic" pieces from the Mantuan court.

And Francesca's Xmas piece at the beginning was glorious.