Giulio Strozzi

Giulio Strozzi (1583 - 31 March 1652) was a Venetian poet and libretto writer. His libretti were put to music by composers like Claudio Monteverdi, Francesco Cavalli, Francesco Manelli, and Francesco Sacrati. He sometimes used the pseudonym Luigi Zorzisto.

From 1627 on, he mostly dedicated himself to writing opera libretti, and he was probably the most important opera writer in Venice in the 1630s and 1640s. He wrote La finta pazza Licori for Claudio Monteverdi in 1627. The two had first met in 1621. The opera was never performed and it is unknown how much of the music for it had been written before the project was abandoned. Both the music and the libretto are lost.

In the 1630s and 1640s, Strozzi was one of the driving forces behind the successful growth of opera in Venice. He wrote the libretto for the opening of the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in 1639 (La Delia, music by Francesco Manelli), and for the 1641 opening of the Teatro Novissimo (La finta pazza, music by Francesco Sacrati).

In 1630 Strozzi wrote Proserpina Rapita. His last libretto, Veremonda, l'amazzone di Aragona, was written for Francesco Cavalli in 1652.

He was a member of the Accademia degli Incogniti in Venice. He was the founder of some cultural "academies", gatherings of like-minded intellectuals; these included the Ordinati during his stay in Rome, and the Dubbiosi in Venice. In 1637 he founded the Accademia degli Unisoni, a gathering of musicians where his adopted daughter Barbara sang.