CAVALIERI, EMILIO DE' ( b. Rome, Italy, c 1550; d. Rome March 1602 )
Composer and a leading member of the Camerata, a group of musicians, composers and others in sixteenth century Italy.
The ideas of the Camerata were influential in developing the basis of the operatic form. Cavalieri, in association with the composers Peri and Caccini, was primarily interested in the audible setting of words, so as to carry dramatic situations.
His work, La rappresentazione di anima e di corpo (1600 ) has been referred to as the earliest opera.
