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The Pilgrim Woman (La pellegrina) is a 1579 play written byGirolamo Bargagli ofSiena that had been performed for the first time on 2 May 1589 inFlorence, after the author's death in 1586, on the occasion of the marriage ofFerdinand I de' Medici, Grand-Duke of Tuscany, withChristina of Lorraine, granddaughter of the former queen-mother of France,Catherine de' Medici. This was enhanced with six musical interludes, theintermedi forLa pellegrina [de], with designs byBernardo Buontalenti, known as the master of Florentine spectacle.[1] Six then-famous composers from Florence contributed music, including some of the most virtuosic vocal writing of the period, early examples ofmonody. The opening aria,Dalle piu alte sfere, is believed to be byEmilio de' Cavalieri (Palisca, Norton Anthology of Music/ Heller, Music in the Baroque, p 23), although it is sometimes attributed to Antonio Archilei, whose wife Vittoria had sung it in the role of Armonia in the 1589 production.
Theintermedi have been played by theHuelgas Ensemble, in 1998; by theHollands Vocaal Ensemble, in 2003; by the Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra, in 2007; and, in selections, by Consort Astræa, in 2009. A staged version was mounted in 1989 inMinneapolis by the Ex Machina Baroque Opera Ensemble. In 2014 theTexas Early Music Project, in Austin, gave the first U.S. performance of the 21st century.
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