Francesca Caccini - Lasciatemi qui solo (~1618)

Francesca Caccini - Lasciatemi qui solo (~1618). Performed by Ruby Hughes (soprano), Jonas Nordberg (theorbo), Mime Yamahiro-Brinkmann (cello). Recorded: April-May 2016 in Länna Church, Nortälje, Sweden. Record label: BIS.
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Francesca Caccini (18 September 1587 - after 1641) was an Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet, and music teacher of the early Baroque era. She was also known by the nickname "La Cecchina", given to her by the Florentines and probably a diminutive of "Francesca". She was the daughter of Giulio Caccini. Her only surviving stage work, La liberazione di Ruggiero, is widely considered the oldest opera by a woman composer.
Caccini is believed to have been a quick and prolific composer, equal in productivity to her court colleagues Jacopo Peri and Marco da Gagliano. Very little of her music survives. Most of her stage music was composed for performance in comedies by poet Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (grand-nephew of the artist) such as La Tancia (1613), Il passatempo (1614) and La fiera (1619). In 1618 she published a collection of thirty-six solo songs and soprano/bass duets (Il primo libro delle musiche) that is a compendium of contemporary styles, ranging from intensely moving, harmonically adventurous laments to joyful sacred songs in Italian and Latin, to witty strophic songs about the joys and perils of romantic love.
In winter 1625 Caccini composed all the music for a 75-minute "comedy-ballet" entitled La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina which was performed for the visiting crown prince of Poland, Ladislaus Sigismondo (later Władysław IV). Combining witty parodies of early opera's stock scenes and self-important characters with moments of surprising emotional intensity, the score shows that Caccini had mastered the full range of musico-theatrical devices in her time and that she had had a strong sense of large-scale musical design. La liberazione so pleased the prince that he had it performed in Warsaw in 1628. This is also widely regarded as the first opera written by a female. There is no evidence to suggest that Caccini composed any of the accompanying poetry, however, it is known that her peers Michelangelo Buonarroti, Andrea Salvadori and Francesco Gualterotti.
Caccini's Primo libro is noted as utilising self-reflexivity. This is because many of her songs within this collection have titles which appear to 'answer' one another. For example the song "Che fai?" which means "what are you doing?" is followed by "Ardo" which translates to "I burn." The songs are also advanced in terms of breath control needed for performance, coordination of hands and voice, as well as the vocal range. Caccini uses romanescas in a unique and unconventional way in these songs. The songs in this collection is accompanied by an instrumental piece, with the intention of the individual performer improvising harmonies over. Although the musical pieces did not denote a specific instrument to use to play the accompaniment, it is likely that a theorbo would be widely used.