This week, Vlad ventures into the underworld of 17th century Italy to discover the roots of early opera starting with Jacopo Peri. Born on this day in 1561, Peri composed some of the first known Italian operas including the mostly-lost Dafne and the first surviving extant opera, Euridice, from 1600. Also known as Il Zazzerino, or The Blondie, Peri’s music features on an excellent disc with soprano Ellen Hargis, lutenist Paul O’Dette, Andrew Lawrence-King, and Hille Perl, and we’ll explore it this morning. We’ll also delight in music by Marenzio for our Morning Madrigal, plus a few recordings on historic guitars to add to the mix to keep things ‘plucky’.
RTÉ lyric fm, Sunday 20th August, 7am-10am
