Background
Giovanni Battista Guarini was born on December 10, 1538 in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
Battista Guarini
Battista Guarini
https://www.amazon.com/Lettere-Inedite-Cavaliere-Giambattista-Guarini/dp/0656414243/?tag=2022091-20
1593
https://www.amazon.com/Segretario-Battista-dellufficio-segretario-infiniti/dp/B07R2D29KX/?tag=2022091-20
1594
https://www.amazon.com/Comp%C3%AAndio-Tragic%C3%B4mica-Giovanni-Battista-Guarini/dp/853910542X/?tag=2022091-20
1601
(His most notable work, Il pastor fido, had its first dram...)
His most notable work, Il pastor fido, had its first dramatic representation in honor of the nuptials of the Duke of Savoy and Catharine of Austria. This play, a pastoral tragicomedy about the loves and fates of shepherds and hunters, polished in style, was translated into many languages and became popular during the 17th century. It set the pattern for a code of refinement and gallantry that lasted until the late 18th century.
https://www.amazon.com/pastor-fido-lingua-napolitana-ebook/dp/B018PIYOJ6/?tag=2022091-20
Giovanni Battista Guarini was born on December 10, 1538 in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.
On the termination of his studies at the universities of Pisa, Padua and Ferrara, Giovanni Guarini was appointed professor of literature at Ferrara. Soon after his appointment, he published some sonnets which obtained for him great popularity as a poet. In 1567, he entered the service of Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara. After about 20 years of service, differences with the Duke led him to resign. After residing successively in Savoy, Mantua, Florence and Urbino, he returned to his native Ferrara. There he discharged one final public mission, that of congratulating Pope Paul V on his election (1605).
Giovanni Guarini died in Venice, where he had been summoned to attend a lawsuit, aged 73.
No poet played a larger role in the flowering of the madrigal in the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras than Guarini. His poems were set more often by madrigal composers than the work of any other poet. His popularity was due to his providing texts to composers which were rich with possibilities for word-painting and other easy translations of emotion into music. One of his poems, the erotic Tirsi morir volea, recounting the amorous encounter of a shepherd and a nymph, was set to music as a madrigal by more composers than any other pastoral poem of the era, including, among others, Andrea Gabrieli, Gioseppe Caimo, Carlo Gesualdo, Luca Marenzio, Benedetto Pallavicino, and Giaches de Wert.
In addition to his decisive influence on madrigal composers, Giovanni Guarini was the single largest influence on opera librettists up until the time of Metastasio in the 18th century. He therefore plays an important role in the history of music.
(His most notable work, Il pastor fido, had its first dram...)
Anna Guarini was one of the famous virtuose singers of the Ferrara court, the three women of the concerto di donne. She was murdered by her husband in 1598, with the assistance of her brother Girolamo.
