This issue begins with an article about the Italian composer Giulio Caccini (1550-1618). Although he was born in Rome, Cosimo de’ Medici hired him at the age of just 15 to sing at the wedding of his son Francis and he spent the rest of his life in Florence, where he succeeded Cavallieri as music director at the court.
The German composer Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) is the subject of this edition’s “En Portada” and interesting feature essay by the French specialist Annie Choisy Kress, who recently won third prize in the Goldberg Competition. The article recalls one of the greatest operatic composers of the 18th century, a man who was also one of the most prepossessing figures of his day.
The composer Johann Hieronymus Kapsperger (1580-1651) is the focus of the main essay in this edition of our magazine. Known today for his solo work for theorbo and lute, Kapsperger is perhaps one of the most enigmatic figures of early 17th-century Italy, as Daniel Zulueta explains in his excellent article. Italy then was far from being a homogenous entity and was mainly under the domination of the Spain of Felipe III, but it was still an endless source for Europe’s musical avant-garde.
