Virginia Ramponi-Andreini

She was known for her performances in commedia dell'arte plays, many of them written for her by her husband Giambattista Andreini, and for having created the title role in Claudio Monteverdi's lost opera L'Arianna.

[3] The first secondary source to record her life in any detail was an entry in Francesco Bartoli's two volume biographical dictionary of Italian actors, Notizie istoriche de comici italiani, published in 1781.

The first surviving copy of La Florinda is the 1606 edition, published in Milan where the Fedeli performed it for the city's Governor, Pedro Henriquez de Acevedo.

[6] Preparations were begun in 1607 for an elaborate set of festivities and performances which were to take place at the Mantua court in May 1608 to celebrate the marriage of Margaret of Savoy to Vincenzo Gonzaga's son and heir Francesco.

Virginia Ramponi-Andreini and the Fedeli troupe were engaged to perform the centerpiece of the festivities, Guarini's play L'idropica, which had a prologue and four elaborate intermedi by several composers, including Claudio Monteverdi and Salamone Rossi.

[7] Monteverdi was also commissioned to compose an opera for the occasion, L'Arianna, based on the Greek myth of Ariadne's abandonment by Theseus on the island of Naxos and her subsequent marriage to Bacchus.

According to an account by the Mantuan courtier, Antonio Costantini, she learned her role by heart in only six days and at the rehearsal on the night of 14 March "sang it with such grace and manner of affect" that all present were amazed.

[7] L'Arianna premiered on 28 May 1608 to great acclaim both for the composer and Ramponi-Andreini, particularly her singing of "Arianna's Lament", the only piece from the opera whose score has survived.

The lament, which musicologist Tim Carter posits was probably added to the opera after she had taken over the role to exploit her talents as a singing-actress, made such an impression that copies of it began to be privately circulated as chamber music.

He was named Pietro Enrico in honour of the Governor who held the child at his baptism on 9 July in the Basilica San Nazaro in Brolo.

[13] The troupe travelled to Prague in 1627 where they had been sent by the Mantua court to perform in the celebrations surrounding the coronation of Ferdinand III as King of Bohemia.