Adriana Basile was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 composer and singer, born in Posillipo

Posillipo

Posillipo is a residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples; it is called Pusilleco in the Neapolitan language.-Geography:...

, and died 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...

. From 1610 she worked for the Gonzagas

House of Gonzaga

The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708.-History:In 1433, Gianfrancesco I assumed the title of Marquis of Mantua, and in 1530 Federico II received the title of Duke of Mantua. In 1531, the family acquired the Duchy of Monferrato through marriage...

 in Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...

. Members of her family also worked for the court, including her brothers, Giambattista Basile

Giambattista Basile

Giambattista Basile was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector.- Biography :Born to a Neapolitan middle-class family, Basile was, during his career, a courtier and soldier to various Italian princes, including the doge of Venice. According to Benedetto Croce he was born in 1575, while...

, a poet, Lelio Basile, a composer, and her sisters, Margherita and Vittoria, who were both singers. Her husband, Mutio Baroni, and her three children, her son Camillo, and two daughters, Leonora

Leonora Baroni

Leonora Baroni was an Italian singer, theorbist, lutenist, viol player, and composer. She was the daughter of Adriana Basile, a virtuosa singer, and Mutio Baroni. Leonora Baroni was born at the Gonzaga court in Mantua. She sang alongside her mother and sister Caterina at court and across Italy,...

 and Caterina were also at the court

Noble court

The court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...

. Leonora and Caterina were both successful singers in their own right. 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...

 declared that Basile was a more talented singer than Francesca Caccini

Francesca Caccini

Francesca Caccini was an Italian composer, singer, lutenist, poet, and music teacher of the early Baroque era. She was the daughter of Giulio Caccini, and was one of the best-known and most influential female European composers between Hildegard of Bingen in the 12th century and the 19th century...

, who was at that time at the Medici

Medici

The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside,...

 court.

Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga awarded Basile a barony, and was also well regarded by Vincenzo's son Francesco Gonzaga

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....

. While still working for the Mantuan court, she travelled to 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....

, Rome, Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, and Modena

Modena

Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....

. She performed in Alessandro Guarini's Licori, ovvero L’incanto d’amore. In 1626 she retired from the service of the Gonzagas, and moved to Naples and later Rome.

None of Basile's music survives, but she is known to have improvised on poetry, including in a competition with Caccini in November 1623.