Historical portrait of the first prima donna of Baroque opera: Vittoria Archilei

Abstract

The name of Vittoria Archilei has entered the history of vocal art as the first opera prima donna in a new style of singing for the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. During her lifetime, the singer enjoyed great popularity. Outstanding composers G. Caccini, J. Peri, S. D'India, E. de’ Cavalieri, etc. they admired her skill, noting the extraordinary tenderness of the sound of her voice, combined with its bright virtuosity. Archilei performance was significantly different from other singers, her contemporaries. It is not by chance that J. Peri calls the prima donna the Euterpe of his time. The article presents a creative portrait of Vittoria Archilei, the first brilliant interpreter of monodic music, an outstanding singer who created a new method of singing women. The methodological basis of the work is the principle of historicism. The cultural and historical research method was used. The biographical reconstruction was made on the basis of source studies with reviews of the singer's contemporaries, letters, music-critical articles. In Russian musicology, this article is the first special publication dedicated to the creative path of Vittoria Archilei. This material will be useful for musicians, singers performing old music, for its stylistically correct interpretation, as well as in training courses on the history of vocal performance at vocal departments of music colleges and faculties of universities.