The concerto delle donne was an ensemble of professional female singers of late Renaissance music in Italy. The term usually refers to the first and most influential group, which existed between 1580 and 1597 in Ferrara. The Ferrarese group's core members were the sopranos Laura Peverara, Livia d'Arco and Anna Guarini; they were renowned for their technical and artistic virtuosity. In 1580, Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, formally established the concerto delle donne, including professional singers of upper-class, but not noble, backgrounds. Their signature style of florid, highly ornamented singing brought prestige to Ferrara and inspired composers of the time such as Lodovico Agostini, Carlo Gesualdo and Claudio Monteverdi. The concerto delle donne revolutionized the role of women in professional music, and continued the tradition of the Este court as a musical center. Word of the ensemble spread, inspiring imitations in the courts of the Medici and Orsini. (Full article...)
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1914 – Around 2,000 members of European society attended a ball at Kenwood House, England, in one of the last major social events before the outbreak of the First World War.
Auricularia auricula-judae, commonly known as the wood ear, the jelly ear, or historically the Jew's ear, is a species of fungus in the order Auriculariales. The basidiocarps (fruit bodies) are brown, gelatinous, and have a noticeably ear-like shape, normally up to 90 millimetres (3.5 inches) across and up to 3 millimetres (0.12 inches) thick. It is edible but not widely consumed, and has been used as a medicinal fungus by herbalists. It grows on wood, especially elder, and is widespread throughout Europe, but is not known to occur elsewhere. The specific epithet is derived from the belief that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree after his betrayal of Jesus. These A. auricula-judae basidiocarps were photographed on a log in the London Borough of Enfield.
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