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Peri, Jacopo
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Peri, Jacopo [Zazzerino]

(b Rome or Florence, 20 Aug 1561; d Florence, 12 Aug 1633 ). Italian composer, singer and instrumentalist. His most
significant contribution was his development of the dramatic recitative for musical theatre. His most characteristic examples of
this style are found in Euridice (1600), the earliest opera for which complete music has survived.

1. Life.
Although Peri may have been born in Rome, he claimed descent from Florentine nobles with a long record of public service.
He settled in Florence at an early age, and on 1 September 1573 he was taken into the convent of SS Annunziata to sing
laude to the organ. His musical education continued under Cristofano Malvezzi, who included a four-part ricercare by him in
his print of 1577 and the madrigal Caro dolce ben mio in his first book of five-part madrigals (1583). On 1 February 1579 Peri
began service as organist at the Badia at a yearly salary of 15 scudi. He held the post until April 1605, and by 1586 he was
also employed as a singer at S Giovanni Battista. The young Peri was praised by A.F. Grazzini for his instrumental and vocal
performances, knowledge and grace, but Grazzini was annoyed that Peris talents as a musician appeared to be insufficiently
recognized. In 1584 the Duke and Duchess of Mantua spoke of Peris endearing qualities. Although there is no known
documentation it is likely that he participated during the 1580s in the discussions of the so-called Camerata which met in the
house of Giovanni de Bardi. When later recalling his fathers acquaintances in a letter to G.B. Doni, Pietro de Bardi praised
Peris performances on the organ and other keyboard instruments, his compositions and his singing, in which, he said, he
intelligently imitated speech in sound.

In 1588, shortly after the accession of Grand Duke Ferdinando I, Peris name first appeared as an official employee of the
Medici court with a monthly salary of six scudi, which was increased to nine scudi in September 1590. His earliest recorded
connection with a dramatic production had been in February 1583, when he had collaborated with Malvezzi, Alessandro
Striggio (i) and others in composing music (which is lost) for the intermedi to Giovanni Fedinis comedy Le due Persilie. In
1589 he took part in the festivities celebrating Ferdinandos marriage to Christine of Lorraine. He performed the role of Arion in
the fifth intermedio for Girolamo Bargaglis comedy La pellegrina, singing his own aria Dunque fra torbidonde in which he
illustrated the miraculous powers of music. According to the descriptive commentary published with the music in 1591 he
captivated the audience, accompanying himself with amazing skill on the chitarrone. Peris costume for this role is depicted in
a sketch by Bernardo Buontalenti.

Peri apparently met with musicians, poets and philosophers at the home of Jacopo Corsi during the 1590s. With the
encouragement and collaboration of Corsi and Ottavio Rinuccini he wrote music for the latters short pastoral Dafne. Although
Dafne was reportedly planned as early as 1594, the earliest recorded performance was during Carnival 15978. Pietro de
Bardi described the event as including a few numbers in short scenes, which were recited and sung privately in a small room.
The first version was subsequently improved for later Florentine performances in 1599, 1600 and 1604. Although details of the
casting are unknown Peri sang the role of Apollo in some of them.

Peris next and most significant collaboration with Rinuccini was in their opera Euridice, first produced for the Florentine
celebrations of the wedding of Maria de Medici and Henri IV, King of France. The premire took place before a small audience
in the Palazzo Pitti on 6 October 1600, although the libretto contains the dedicatory date of 4 October. Peris musical rivals,
Giulio Caccini and Emilio de Cavalieri, each had a part in this initial performance: Caccini rewrote music for the parts sung by
his musicians (the role of Eurydice, three choral numbers, and solos for some nymphs and shepherds), while Cavalieri
appears to have directed the production. The set and costume designers are unknown (Ludovico Cigoli may have been one),
but the dcor was quite simple in comparison with Caccinis spectacular Il rapimento di Cefalo presented three nights later
(and in which Peri sang). In the preface to the publication of Euridice, Peri identified prominent members of the original cast:
Francesco Rasi (Aminta), Antonio Brandi (Arcetro), Melchior Palantrotti (Pluto) and a boy soprano, Jacopo Giusti, from Lucca
(Daphne, the messenger). Handwritten annotations on a copy of the original libretto name additional singers, including Peri
himself in the role of Orpheus (see Palisca, 1964). Peri also listed in the preface four instrumentalists, who played from behind
the scenes. Euridice received high praise, particularly from Marco da Gagliano, who was impressed not only by the work but
also by Peris own expressive singing. The composers rivals, however, found the recitatives tedious and the stage designs
inadequate. In 1616 Peri and Rinuccini supervised a revival in Bologna.

After 1600 Peri continued to serve the Medici court. His later professional activities were primarily in composition, although he
sang the role of Neptune in an unnamed ballo on 14 February 1611, and again in a new version of the ballo, now named
Mascherate di ninfe di Senna, on 5 May 1613. He wrote at least some of the music for the celebrations of the wedding of
Prince Cosimo in 1608, and his setting of one of the choruses of the younger Michelangelo Buonarrotis Il giudizio di Paride
(Poich la notte con loscure piume), performed during the festivities, reappeared with a new text (Se tu parti da me, Fillide
amata) in his 1609 volume of songs. Few other compositions from this period survive, but contemporary reports and librettos
indicate that at least in the 1610s he wrote much for dramatic productions. Among these intermedi, ballets and equestrian
shows were some of the most spectacular court feste that had ever been seen in Florence. Peri generally collaborated with
other Florentine composers, particularly Marco da Gagliano and Francesca Caccini. He may have specialized in writing
recitatives for these productions, but there is no evidence that this was his exclusive concern.

Peris close relationship with the Mantuan court during the early years of the 17th century is documented by numerous letters,
mostly sent to Ferdinando Gonzaga, and by his active membership in the Accademia degli Elevati. The composer planned two
large-scale projects for Mantua: Le nozze di Peleo e Tetide (libretto by Francesco Cini), intended for the Gonzaga wedding
festivities of 1608 but rejected in favour of Rinuccini and Monteverdis Arianna, and Adone (libretto by Jacopo Cicognini),
projected for a performance in 1620. He composed songs, now lost, on texts by various members of the Mantuan court. The
Gonzagas frequently praised his talents. In 1618 the duke and duchess recommended him for an appointment in Florence as
Camarlingo dellArte della Lana, a position that he held initially with a monthly salary of ten scudi. In Florence too his talents
did not go unrecognized, and in 1616, with Francesca Caccini and her husband, G.B. Signorini, he accompanied Cardinal
Carlo de Medici to Rome, while in 1619 the publisher Zanobi Pignoni was moved by the continual requests for his music to
reissue his 1609 volume of songs, to which he now added several more recent works.

In his later years Peri collaborated with G.B. da Gagliano on three sacre rappresentazioni, performed before the Compagnia
dellArcangelo Raffaello, and with Marco da Gagliano on two operas, both to texts by Andrea Salvadori. The first of these
operas, Lo sposalizio di Medoro ed Angelica, based on an episode from Ariostos Orlando furioso, was staged at the Palazzo
Pitti on 25 September 1619 in honour of the election of the Emperor Ferdinand II, brother-in-law of Grand Duke Cosimo II. An
extant libretto of 1623 reports numerous revisions, probably for a proposed but unrealized performance in Mantua in 1622.
The second opera with Marco da Gagliano, La Flora, was in honour of the wedding in 1628 of Duke Odoardo Farnese of
Parma and Margherita de Medici. Peri composed only the role of Clori. For these festivities Peri had originally planned a
different opera, Iole ed Ercole, also on a libretto by Salvadori. Although there is no evidence that this work was fully composed,
a lament of Iole, Uccidimi, dolore, is attributed to Peri (in CZ-Pnm II La 2 and in I-Bc Q49). In 1630 Peri suffered a serious
illness and on 15 March 1630 prepared his will. He died three years later and was buried in the church of S Maria Novella.

Composition for Peri was often a slow and apparently difficult task, a circumstance that may explain the number of works he
left incomplete. His most natural musical activity seems to have been performance. Severo Bonini said that he could move the
hardest heart to tears through his singing, and he also praised his superb instrumental accompaniments. Marco da Gagliano
claimed that no one could fully appreciate Peris music until he had heard dramatic interpretations by the composer himself. In
the preface to Euridice Peri suggested that the secret of his expressive singing lay not only in his written embellishments but
much more in the subtle nuances and graces which can never be completely indicated in notation. His success brought praise
from many other contemporaries but also created inevitable jealousies. The most famous attack came in the form of a satirical
sonnet by Francesco Ruspoli, presenting otherwise unfounded slurs on his professional reputation and family. Stefano
Rosselli, in a commentary on the sonnet, explained the implications of the poem and also added valuable information on the
composers character and appearance. Peri was very slender and of medium height, and had long, blond hair, this last feature
being reflected in his well-known nickname, Zazzerino.

2. Works.
Peris earliest published compositions are in various styles. The sectional ricercare in four parts (1577) combines a number of
themes through standard contrapuntal devices. The madrigal for five voices (1583), basically homophonic but occasionally
enlivened by imitations, is a syllabic setting of an ottava. In the more expansive aria for the intermedio of 1589 the tenor soloist
has elaborate embellishments, which are at times echoed by two other voices. The publication of 1591 provides a simple four-
part instrumental accompaniment despite the reference in the commentary to the composers own performance on the
chitarrone.
Peris first complete drama in music, Dafne, follows the literary genre of the tragicomic pastoral. Rinuccinis libretto tells of the
slaying of the Pythian dragon, Apollos boasts to Cupid, Cupids revenge by afflicting Apollo with love for Daphne, Daphnes
transformation into a laurel tree and Apollos final grief. Printed librettos for Peris setting survive from the 1600 and 1604
performances, but only fragments of the music are preserved in two manuscripts of Florentine origin (now in I-Fn and B-Bc
respectively). Two of the six excerpts are ascribed to Corsi in the latter source. The four pieces presumably by Peri consist of
the Prologue sung by Ovid, a choral monody Almo Dio, chil carrardente, Venuss ottava Chi da lacci damor and the
messengers narrative Qual nova meraviglia! The last-named setting is the only surviving excerpt with a non-strophic text and
a consistent recitative style. Since the words deviate somewhat from the librettos of 1600 and 1604 this piece may represent
the recitative writing in the earliest version of the pastoral. The vocal line has no written embellishments, and few dissonances
with the slow-moving bass. Two of the strophic numbers in Dafne closely resemble later pieces by Peri with similar poetic
structure. The music for the Prologue was adapted for the Prologue to Euridice, while the music for Chi da lacci damor
reappears in modified form in Torna, deh torna, pargoletto mio, published in Pietro Benedettis Musiche of 1611. Similar
relationships to other contemporary songs suggest that Peri may have at times employed stock formulae for standard types of
poetry.

Peri and Rinuccinis second collaboration, Euridice, is a significant advance on the experimental Dafne. The longer libretto has
a more intricate design, and the music a wider range of expressive techniques. Tragedy, who sings the Prologue, dismisses
fear, bloodshed and sorrow and then calls for sweeter emotions to be evoked through the forces of music. In the classical tale
which follows, Rinuccinis Orpheus only temporarily loses his beloved Eurydice. Once successful in the underworld he makes
an unconditional return with his wife to the joyous land of shepherds and nymphs. Although the text provides poignant
expressions of intense grief by Orpheus and the chorus, lighter emotions and simple narration are just as prominent. Following
the Prologue of seven stanzas, the libretto may be divided into five scenes, each concluded by a strophic number which
reflects on the preceding events. In these interludes Peri mixed choral writing, usually in four or five parts, with stanzas for solo
voices. The texts have simple rhyme and metrical patterns, mostly with lines of seven or eight syllables, which sharply contrast
with the freer rhyming of the 7- and 11-syllable lines elsewhere in the libretto. Outside the interludes the only comparable texts
occur in two short songs for Tirsi and Orpheus. In setting the strophic poetry Peri imposed musical organization in three ways:
through the re-use of material from one stanza to another, either in exact repetition or in strophic variations; through recurring
rhythmic and melodic patterns within single stanzas; and through frequent use of refrains.

The continuous recitatives in the scenes between the set choral numbers contain Peris most innovatory writing in Euridice. He
described this style as an intermediate course, lying between the slow and suspended movements of song and the swift and
rapid movements of speech. The pacing of the voice and accompaniment is carefully coordinated with the rising and falling
tensions in the text, thereby achieving a broad scale of emotional expression. In the narrative sections of the libretto the singer
imitates the rhythmic and melodic inflections of a normal speaking voice. Peris slower accompaniment moves according to the
principal words of the text, showing no apparent regard for large-scale tonal design. More intense sections are created by
unprepared dissonances, suspensions and frequent rests for the voice; by unexpected harmonic progressions; and at times by
altering the normal motion of the bass. These devices are well illustrated in Orpheuss impassioned monologues Non piango e
non sospiro, sung after he hears of Eurydices death, and Funeste piaggie, ombrosi, orridi campi, delivered at the gates of the
underworld.

Peris extant opera with Gagliano, La Flora, treats the origin of flowers, symbolic of Florence and Parma, the two cities
honoured in the wedding festivities of 1628. Blossoms are transformed from the tears of joy shed by Zephyr upon finally
winning his beloved Clori. Peris contribution, the role of Clori, consists of the virtuoso aria O campagne dAnfitrite in Act 2 and
numerous recitatives. The aria, in the form of strophic variations, contains far more embellished phrases for the voice than
does Peris earlier surviving dramatic music. The accompaniment is more active and supplies a short ritornello between each
stanza. As in Euridice, the recitatives range from a normal narrative to a highly emotional style; the latter is used particularly in
Act 4 when Clori jealously believes that Zephyr has turned his affections to another nymph.

Only a few fragments remain from Peris other dramatic works. The above-mentioned Torna, deh torna, pargoletto mio,
patterned after Venuss song in Dafne, is an aria of Venus from the Rinuccini ballo of 1611 later named Mascherate di ninfe di
Senna (1613). In his setting of the ottava text Peri used a modification of the first four lines of music for the second half of the
song. The triple metre with hemiolas is retained from the earlier version in Dafne. One other fragment from the Mascherate di
ninfe di Senna survives in manuscript but is unattributed and consists only of four lines of recitative.

Peris song collection, Le varie musiche (1609), contains four settings of Petrarch sonnets, each divided into four parts; nine
madrigals with non-strophic texts; four arias with extra stanzas printed after the music; and one strophic aria with minor
variations written out for each stanza. The sonnets and six of the solo madrigals mix Peris recitative style with phrases of
more lyrical character. Embellishments are confined to occasional turns and trills or to short cadential roulades. The remaining
three madrigals, for two and three voices, contain passages of imitation, of note-against-note writing and of a single voice
emphasized against an accompaniment. The four arias with extra stanzas of text are in triple metre throughout and frequently
repeat melodic and rhythmic patterns. The aria in strophic-variation form, Se tu parti da me, Fillide amata, is unique in this
collection, since each stanza presents a sharp distinction between recitative and aria styles. The second edition of Le varie
musiche (1619) omitted this song and one madrigal but contains seven additional strophic arias, including simple dance-
songs, one recitative setting and several pieces in mixed styles. The few further songs by Peri that have survived in other
prints or manuscripts from the period include O dellalto appenin figlio sovrano, with four sections partly using strophic-
variation technique, and three solos in a style similar to the expressive monologues in Euridice: Se da laspro martire, Tu dormi
e l dolce sonno and Uccidimi, dolore; as was mentioned above, this last piece may be a survival from Peris incomplete Iole
ed Ercole of 1628.

For the opening of Euridice, see OPERA, II, 1,

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See also from The New Grove Dictionary of Opera: EURIDICE (I).

Copyright Oxford University Press 2007 2017.