Barbara Strozzi in Context

Renowned as both a singer and composer, Barbara Strozzi was among the most accomplished and prolific composers of vocal chamber music in the seventeenth century. Her works, which have become increasingly popular in concert and recordings in recent decades, are remarkable for their musical sophistication and extraordinary range of expression-humor, irony, eroticism, pathos, and religious devotion. The adopted daughter of the poet Giulio Strozzi and mother of four children, Barbara Strozzi (who might have been a courtesan) was also for a time a participant in Venice's vibrant libertine intellectual and artistic world. This first English-language volume to focus on the composer brings together invited essays by an international group of scholars from diverse disciplines to explore Strozzi's life, her music, and the complex world she inhabited. Chapters focus not only on Strozzi, but also on other prominent women of the time, and on other issues including financial questions and matters of sexuality.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures; List of Musical Examples; List of Tables; List of Contributors; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction Beth Glixon and Wendy Heller; Part I. The 'Exceptional' Woman: 1. Francesca Caccini Kelley Harness; 2: Margherita Costa and the singing Bella Donna Jessica Goethals; 3. Literary women in Barbara Strozzi's Venice Meredith Ray and Lynn Lara Westwater; 4. Antonia Padoani Bembo Claire Fontijn; 5. Musical daughters of Venice Vanessa Tonelli; Part II. Family, Sex, and the Problem of Women in Seicento Venice: 6. Giulio Strozzi and biography Beth Glixon; 7. Barbara Strozzi, mother and daughter Beth Glixon; 8. Sex, trade, and the sex trade in Venice Jana Byars; 9. Considering the courtesan question CN Lester; 10: Women and wealth in early modern Venice Isabella Cecchini; Part III. Gender Ideology and the Venetian Academies: 11. The virtuosa and the academy Sarah Gwyneth Ross; 12. Artemisia Gentileschi, Padovanino, and the Venetian Academies Jesse Locker; 13. Barbara Strozzi, Nicolò Fontei, and the Accademia degli Unison John Whenham; 14. The Strozzis and the Unisoni Julie Robarts; 15. The unknown goddess, Opus 3, and the art of dissimulation Wendy Heller; Part IV. Contextualizing Strozzi's Music: 16. Sacred landscape of early modern Venice Jonathan Glixon; 17. The sacred context for Strozzi's Opus 5 Jeffrey Kurtzman; 18. Barbara Strozzi and the Habsburg connection Andrew Weaver; 19. The French context for Barbara Strozzi's 'Sul Rodano severo' Rose Pruiksma; 20. Sketching a context for the refrain structures in Strozzi's Op. 1; Part V. Poetry and Music: 21. Poetic and literary choices in Strozzi's vocal compositions Nicola Badolato; 22. Strozzi's Opus 1 and Monteverdi Beth Glixon; 23. Barbara Strozzi's tonal style Gregory Barnett; 24. Strozzi's same-sex cantatas Roger Freitas; 25. Strozzi's enigmatic conclusions Wendy Heller; Part VI. Strozzi and material culture; 26. Barbara and Giulio Strozzi and the visual arts Linda Borean; 27. The Strozzi's Venetian doorknocker Victoria Avery and Beth Glixon; 28. Strozzi's dedications Jonathan Glixon; 29. Problems in the printed editions of Strozzi's music Tim Carter; Part VII. Performing Strozzi: 30. Editing Strozzi's ghost accidentals Richard Kolb; 31. Strozzi and the Harpsichord Joyce Wei-Jo Chen; 32. The composer and her voice Wendy Heller; 33. Singing Strozzi today CN Lester; Afterward: Barbara Strozzi at 50 Ellen Rosand; Further Reading; Index.

About the Author :
Beth Glixon is an independent scholar who writes on opera production in seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Venice, as well as on the lives of female singers active there. With Jonathan Glixon she published Inventing the Business of Opera: The Impresario and His World in Seventeenth-Century Venice (2006). Wendy Heller is Scheide Professor of Music History at Princeton University. She is the author of Emblems of Eloquence: Eloquence: Opera and Women's Voices in Seventeenth-Century Venice (2003) and Music in the Baroque (2013) and editor of the forthcoming edition of Cavalli's Veremonda, l'Amazzone di Aragona.