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From today's featured article

Excerpt of a piece written for the concerto

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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In the news

Brian Wilson in 1990

The Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson (pictured) dies at the age of 82.
A shooting at a secondary school in Graz, Austria, leaves eleven people dead.
At the Tony Awards, Purpose wins the Best Play and Maybe Happy Ending wins the Best Musical.
Prime Minister of Mongolia Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene resigns after weeks of protests.
In the Netherlands, an early election is called after the Schoof cabinet collapses as the PVV abandons the governing coalition.

On this day

June 11

George Wallace protesting desegregation at the University of Alabama

1594 – Philip II of Spain recognized the sovereign rights of the principalía, local Philippine nobles and chieftains who had converted to Catholicism.
1724 – Johann Sebastian Bach directed his cantata O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort, BWV 20 in Leipzig on the first Sunday after Trinity, beginning his chorale cantata cycle.
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.
1963 – The University of Alabama was desegregated as Governor George Wallace stepped aside after defiantly blocking the entrance to an auditorium (pictured).

Roger Bresnahan (b. 1879)
Sheila Heaney (b. 1917)
A. Thurairajah (d. 1994)
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (d. 2014)

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Today's featured picture

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.

Photograph credit: Stuart Phillips

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