Great Barrington — Crescendo Music will present “La Cecchina — The Songbird” at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 7, at Trinity Church in Lakeville, Conn, and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, at Saint James Place in Great Barrington. The program features selections for voice, lute, and virginal from Francesca Caccini’s 1618 collection “Il primo libro delle musiche.” Performers are Salomé Sandoval, mezzo soprano and lute, and Christine Gevert, virginal and organ.
Musicians continue to study and perform Francesca Caccini’s “Il primo libro delle musiche” because it offers a clear example of early Baroque vocal style. The collection shows how composers matched music closely to text, shaping emotion through melody, rhythm, and harmony in ways that influenced later vocal writing.
Francesca Caccini was an Italian composer, singer, and musician of the early Baroque period and the first woman known to have composed an opera.
She was born in 1587 in Florence into a musical family led by her father Giulio Caccini, a central figure in the development of early opera and solo song. Francesca was trained as a singer, lutenist, and keyboard player and became one of the most highly paid musicians at the Medici court, where she worked as a composer and performer.
Caccini’s most famous work is “La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina” (1625), the earliest surviving opera written by a woman. The opera is notable for its dramatic clarity, expressive vocal writing, and inventive use of instrumental color, and it was performed both in Italy and abroad during her lifetime.
In addition to opera, Caccini composed songs, chamber music, and theatrical works, many of which were published in her 1618 collection “Il primo libro delle musiche.” Her career was unusual for her time, both because of her success and because women rarely held official positions as composers.
Today, Francesca Caccini is recognized as a pioneering figure in early opera and Baroque music, whose contributions were long overlooked but are now increasingly studied and performed.
Crescendo Founding Artistic Director Christine Gevert is a musician with both German and Chilean citizenship. She earned a master’s degree in organ and early music performance in Germany and studied music theory in Chile. She has taught music in both countries and has performed widely as an organist, harpsichordist, and conductor.
Gevert has worked with many music groups in Europe, including ensembles based in Berlin and Leipzig. In Chile, she has also performed with several well-known orchestras and early music groups, including the Orquesta Sinfónica de Chile and the Orquesta de Cámara de la Universidad Católica.
Based in Lakeville, Conn., Crescendo is a regional choral and instrumental ensemble that presents programs ranging from Renaissance and Baroque music to contemporary and Latin American works, often performed on period instruments. Founded and directed by Christine Gevert, the ensemble performs primarily in Lakeville and Great Barrington and received the Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award in 2014.
Crescendo will perform “La Cecchina — The Songbird,” a program of works for voice, lute, and virginal by 17th-century Italian composer Francesca Caccini, at 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 7, at Trinity Church in Lakeville, Conn., and at 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, at Saint James Place in Great Barrington.
More information and tickets are available here.
