Jacopo Peri
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Peri, Jacopo
(nickname Il Zazzerino, “the long-haired”). Born Aug. 20, 1561, in Rome; died Aug. 12, 1633, in Florence. Italian singer and composer. One of opera’s founders.
Peri was a member of the Florentine Camerata. In 1592 he, together with J. Corsi, composed the music for the first opera, Dafne, for which the poet O. Rinuccini wrote the libretto. It was first performed in 1597–98 in Florence. None of the music composed by Peri has survived. His opera Euridice (1600) is the most brilliant of the extant early operas; Peri himself sang the part of Orpheus in the first performances.
REFERENCE
Rolland, R. Opera v XVII v. v Italii, Germanii, Anglii. Moscow, 1931. (Translated from French.)
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.