The Pilgrim Woman

"The Pilgrim Woman" ("La Pellegrina") was a play performed at the Florentine Intermedi of 1592. The play was written by the Italian sixteenth-century playwright and librettist Girolamo Bargagli of Sienna in 1579 but was performed for the first time on 2 May 1589, after the author's death in 1586. It is perhaps best known for the fact that it was staged on the occasion of the marriage of Ferdinand I de' Medici, grand-duke of Tuscany, with Christine de Lorraine, granddaughter of the former queen-mother of France, Catherine de' Medici, in that year. Bernardo Buontalenti, known as the master of Florentine spectacle, created six "intermezzo" designs for the play. [Banham (1998, 545).]

The play's musical interludes, or 'intermedii' have been performed up to the present day (2007), e.g. by the Huelgas Ensemble in 1998, by the Hollands Vocaal Ensemble in 2003 and by the Capriccio Stravagante Renaissance Orchestra in 2007. A total of six then-famous composers from Florence contributed to the music.

Notes

References

* Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. "The Cambridge Guide to Theatre." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.
* D. P. Walker, D. P. 1963. "Musique des Intermedes de "La Pellegrina", (CNRS, Paris), (reprinted 1986).
* New Grove Dictionary entries under INTERMEDIO and INTERMEDE, (there were also intermedes at the French court).
* [http://www.operabaroque.com www.operabaroque.com] (in French)