Divas in the convent : nuns, music, and defiance in seventeenth-century Italy
"When eight-year old Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana (1590-1662) entered one of the preeminent convents in Bologna in 1598, she had no idea what cloistered life had in store for her. Thanks to clandestine instruction from a local maestro di cappello - and despite the church hierarchy's vehement opposition to all convent music - Vizzana became the star of the convent, composing works so thoroughly modern and expressive that a recent critic described them as "historical treasures." Craig A. Monson recalls the story of Vizzana and her feloow nuns at Santa Cristina to elucidate the role that music played in the lives of these cloistered women. Gifted singers, instrumentalists, and composers, these nuns used music not only to forge links with the community beyond convent walls but also to defy ecclesiastical authority - from archbishops in Bologna to cardinals in Rome, and even the pope himself. In restoring the musically gifted Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana to history, Monson introduces readers to the full range of captivating characters who played their parts in seventeenth-century convent life."--Colleen Reardon, University of California, Irvine - P. [4] cover
Print Book, English, 2012
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2012