Giovanni Gualberto Magli was an Italian castrato

Castrato

A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity.Castration before puberty prevents a boy's...

 who had an active singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

 career during the first quarter of the 17th century. Born in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, he studied voice with Giulio Caccini

Giulio Caccini

Giulio Caccini , also known as Giulio Romano, was an Italian composer, teacher, singer, instrumentalist and writer of the very late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the founders of the genre of opera, and one of the single most influential creators of the new Baroque style...

 before becoming a musician for the House of Medici on 23 August 1604. He participated in the world premiere of Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Monteverdi

Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...

's L'Orfeo in 1607 at the court of Prince Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua

Francesco Gonzaga

Francesco Gonzaga was an Italian nobleman, who was Duke of Ariano.-Biography:He was brother of the Cardinal Gianvincenzo Gonzaga, nephew of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and of Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua....

; portraying the roles of La Musica and Prosperina and possibly one other part. The musicologist and historian Hans Redlich

Hans Redlich

Hans Ferdinand Redlich was an Austrian classical composer, conductor, musicologist and writer.-Redlich's Continental Years:...

 mistakenly allocates Magli to the role of Orfeo. In 1608 he sang for the wedding festivities of Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Cosimo II de' Medici was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1609 until 1621. He was the elder son of the then incumbent Grand Duke and Christina of Lorraine. He married Maria Magdalena of Austria, and had eight children....

 and Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria. In October 1611 he was granted two years paid leave by Antonio de' Medici

Antonio de' Medici

Don Antonio de' Medici , the son of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his mistress Bianca Capello, was a minor figure at the Grand Ducal Medici court....

 to pursue further studies in Naples. He left Medici service in 1615 to join the musicians at the court of John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg

John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg

John Sigismund was a Prince-elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg from the House of Hohenzollern. He also served as a Duke of Prussia.-Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia:...

. He remained there until September 1622. He was buried in Florence on 8 January 1625.

Sources