The first woman known to have composed opera, Francesca Caccini was also a skilled and admired singer, as you can tell from the beguiling vocal lines of her songs and arias. Music belonged to Caccini’s birthright, handed down by her father, the composer and singer Giulio Caccini (1551-1618). She honed her vocal skills in a famed partnership, the concerto delle donne, with her sister and stepmother. Born in Florence in 1587, Francesca became one of the highest-paid musicians in early 17th-century Italy. She embraced the revolutionary nuove musiche or “new music,” the expressive style of accompanied solo singing pioneered by her father, and used it to convey powerful emotions in her Il primo libro delle musiche (1618), a landmark collection of secular and sacred solo songs and duets. La liberazione di Ruggiero (1625), her first known opera, explores the theme of women and power through its rich diversity of songs, dances, and instrumental pieces. Caccini’s many dramatic works, composed between 1607 and her death around 1640, played a significant role in the early development of Italian opera.