Francesca Caccini's "aria sopra la romanesca" Dove io credea le mie speranze vere is an invocation of Arianna's voice that seeks to contrast and challenge the more submissive and subdued lament of Monteverdi's Arianna. Placed at the center of her 1618 Primo libro delle musiche, Caccini's song is purposefully not a lament but in the style of an aria romanesca. Its ample borrowings from Rinuccini's text are organized in a way that portrays an unapologetic, self-confident statement of Teseo's blame as well as a warning to other women about the excesses and dangers of love. In contrasting Monteverdi's recitative-like compositional style with a subtly nuanced romanesca form, Caccini both conforms to the aesthetic norms of the Florentine Camerata and evokes an aura of widow-like constancy in the social context of Christine of Lorraine's court. These musical allusions to female circles, in an aria that presents a non-lamenting Arianna, form a polemical discourse with Monteverdi?s famous soliloquy of a decidedly un-empowered woman.

Works: Works: Francesca Caccini: Dove io credea le mie speranze vere (442-47).

Sources: Claudio Monteverdi: Lamento di Arianna (437-47).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi