Better known as “La Cecchina” in her time, Francesca Caccini’s historical profile is often overshadowed by that of her father, Giulio, who helped originate the Baroque musical style and the conventions of opera and modern song in the early 17th century. However, the younger Caccini’s achievements were groundbreaking in their own right. Born in 1587 in Florence, she became an accomplished singer, keyboard player, lutenist, composer and poet at a young age, beginning work at the Medici court when she was 20. While serving as a singing teacher there, she composed madrigals for educational purposes. Her only extant collection of songs—1618’s Il primo libro delle musiche—evidences her ability to shift between styles and her penchant for elaborate vocal embellishment. Perhaps her greatest legacy, however, is the 1625 opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, the only surviving composition of an estimated 16 staged works that she wrote. With its outlandish ballet on horseback and its singing monsters and plants, the work was unprecedentedly modern both in its content and musical approach, and is widely considered to be the first known opera written by a woman.