Background

Little is known about his early life, but he was born in Italy, the son of the carpenter Michelangelo Caccini; he was the older brother of the Florentine sculptor Giovanni Caccini. In Rome he studied the lute, the viol and the harp, and began to acquire a reputation as a singer. In the 1560s, Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Florence, was so impressed with his talent that he took the young Caccini to Florence for further study.

Career

In 1589 Caccini took part, as performer and conductor, in the wedding festivities of Ferdinand de' Medici.

When Maria de Médici married Henry IV of France in Florence, as part of the celebrations the nobleman Jacopo Corsi staged, on Oct. 6, 1600, what is sometimes regarded as the first opera Euridice, with a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini and music mostly by Jacopo Peri, also employed as singer and composer at the Medicean court.

Caccini, who was in charge of the performance, unscrupulously replaced some of Peri's arias with his own.

Three days later Caccini presented Il rapimento di Cefalo, for which he wrote most of the music, but it received little acclaim, unlike Peri's Euridice.

Caccini's version was not performed until Dec. 5, 1602; it was not revived. The success of Peri's Euridice, and his patronization by Corsi, Bardi's influential successor, resulted in Caccini's gradual decline in esteem during his remaining years, despite the importance and popularity of Le nuove musiche, and the publication of two other collections by Caccini Fuggilotio musicale (2d ed.

1613) and Nuove musiche e nuova maniera de scriverle (1614).

Achievements

• He was one of the founders of the genre of opera, and one of the most influential creators of the new Baroque style. He was also the father of the composer Francesca Caccini and the singer Settimia Caccini.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Ave Maria (Caccini)

    ( Digital Sheet Music of Ave Maria (Caccini) Composed by...)

  • Amarilli, mia bella

Views

He collaborated with J. Peri in the early attempts at musical drama which were the ancestors of modern opera (Dafne, 1594, and Euridice, 1600), produced at Florence by the circle of musicians and amateurs which met at the houses of G. Bardi and Corsi.

Membership

Probably about 1579 Caccini became a member of the Florentine Camerata, a literary and musical society founded by Count Giovanni de' Bardi, who implies, in a letter to Caccini (ca. 1580), that he was the first to encourage Caccini to write in the new style.

Connections

He married twice, both wives being voice pupils of his.

He had no children by his second wife, Margherita.