upper soprano range during this transitional period. The four singers of the concerto di donne inspired numerous compositions by the leading composers of the court, including Luzzasco Luzzaschi, Lodovico Agostini, and others. In addition, their fame was so widespread that composers from elsewhere — such as the nobleman Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (who also murdered his first wife) — came to Ferrara specifically to write music for them. Anna was famous for her vocal virtuosity and the beauty of her voice, and Agostini dedicated specific madrigals to her specifically in his third book of madrigals (1582). The vogue for music written for soprano voices was to prove durable; indeed it has never ended. Monteverdi's first book of madrigals (1587) features soprano voices as the main attraction; in most of the pieces the bass voice only enters after a rest of several bars, allowing the upper voices to begin. The poet Torquato Tasso praised her in verse, in his Mentre in concento alterno, as did Agostini himself in the introduction to his 1582 madrigal collection. References and further reading Articles "Lodovico Agostini," "Este," "Ferrara," "Giovanni Battista Guarini" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. Note: there is no entry specifically on Anna Guarini in the 1980 edition. External links Biography of Anna Guarini, by Laurie Stras, musicologist at the University of Southampton. 1563 births 1598 deaths Italian women singers Italian murder victims Musicians from Ferrara 16th-century Italian women singers 16th-century Italian singers