Emilio de’ Cavalieri

Italian composer

Also known as: Emilio dei Cavalieri, Emilio del Cavaliere, Emilio del Cavalieri

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De’ Cavalieri also spelled:: del Cavalieri, dei Cavalieri, or del Cavaliere

Born:: c. 1550, Rome [Italy]

Died:: March 11, 1602, Rome

Also Known As:: Emilio del Cavalieri; Emilio dei Cavalieri; Emilio del Cavaliere

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Emilio de’ Cavalieri (born c. 1550, Rome [Italy]—died March 11, 1602, Rome) was an Italian composer and one of the earliest to compose dramatic music.

A nobleman, he became supervisor of fine arts and entertainments at the court of the grand duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany. He was a member of the Camerata in Florence, a group whose theories gave rise to the first operas. He composed intermezzi and pastorals, which stood midway between the masquelike intermezzi and true operas. Historically, his most significant work is La rappresentazione di anima e di corpo (Representation of Soul and Body), an allegorical morality play. Important as a precursor of opera and of oratorio, it had characteristics of both. Published in 1600, it contained the earliest printed examples of figured bass. Although it was surpassed in musical and dramatic intensity by the first true operas (those of Jacopo Peri and Giulio Caccini), it was one of the earliest examples of the monodic recitative style that blossomed in early opera.

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