Jacopo Peri
Italian composer and singer
Jacopo Peri (Italian: [ˈjaːkopo ˈpɛːri]; 20 August 1561 – 12 August 1633) was an Italian composer, singer, and instrumentalist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. He wrote what is considered the first opera, the mostly lost Dafne (c. 1597), and also the earliest extant opera, Euridice (1600).
He is sometimes known by the byname ll Zazzerino (lit. 'the blond one').
Life and career
Jacopo di Antoni di Franceso Peri was born in either Rome or Florence to a middle-class family. Peri himself claimed to be from Rome, but considering the pro-Roman sentiments of the reigning Fernando de'Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, it was considered a disadvantage to be known as a Florentine. This may have motivated Peri to lie about his true birthplace. Nonetheless, he was employed to sing at the Servite monastery of Santissima Annunziata in the city of Florence. He likely received an education from the monastery school as well. Due to its size and favour with the Medici court, which attended mass there each week, Santissima Annunziata was seen as pipeline for musical students to develop their careers and acquire patronage. Because of his talent and education, Peri was able to study in Florence with Cristofano Malvezzi, and went on to work in a number of churches there, both as an organist and as a singer.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jacopo Peri” is italian composer and singer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jacopo, Peri and Italian, not as a finished interpretation.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q205519. VIAF identifies the subject as 54265591. The Library of Congress control number is n81003165. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1561, 1633, 1597 and 1600.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jacopo Peri” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.