Anna Renzi was a leading Italian opera

Italian opera

Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...

 singer of the mid-17th century, renowned for her acting ability as well as her voice. She has been described as the first prima donna

Prima donna

Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...

. She sang in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 and Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, where she appeared in the role of Ottavia in the premiere of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea

L'incoronazione di Poppea

L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...

. She was the subject of Le glorie della signora Anna Renzi (1644), a collection of encomiums edited by Giulio Strozzi, which has been called "one of the first operatic fan books". Alex Ross writes:

the poet Giulio Strozzi acclaimed her as a singer of “admirable and singular intelligence,” whose delivery seemed “not memorized but born at the very moment”—even after she had given a particular role twenty-six times. Renzi said little, watching those around her and adopting their mannerisms as the occasion demanded. Onstage, she disappeared into her characters, indulging in high comedy one night and high tragedy the next.

Sources

• The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera (ed. Parker, 1994)