Achille Peri Achille Peri Achille Peri (20 December 1812 - 28 March 1880) was an Italian composer and conductor. He is best known for his operas which were strongly influenced by the music of Giuseppe Verdi. Born in Reggio Emilia, Peri began his musical education in his native city before pursuing further studies in Paris with Michele Carafa. He founded a touring opera company in Paris, but returned to Italy after it failed. He began working as a conductor at the Teatro Comunale in Reggio Emilia where his first opera, "Il solitario", premiered on 29 March 1841. His third opera, "Dirce" (1843),
Jacopo Peri subsequently began to work in the Medici court, first as a tenor singer and keyboard player, and later as a composer. His earliest works were incidental music for plays, "intermedi" and madrigals. In the 1590s, Peri became associated with Jacopo Corsi, the leading patron of music in Florence. They believed contemporary art was inferior to classical Greek and Roman works, and decided to attempt to recreate Greek tragedy, as they understood it. Their work added to that of the Florentine Camerata of the previous decade, which produced the first experiments in monody, the solo song style over continuo bass which