A young female singer in 17th-century Venice: she is virtuoso, attractive and extremely charming, and the gentlemen of her select audience are at her feet. They call her the "Singing Venus". But Barbara Strozzi wants more: she regularly publishes her compositions – more than any woman before her. The new BR-KLASSIK audio biography tells her story.

Until the 20th century, female composers had a hard time in a male-dominated art. And in historiography for even longer: it was not until 1978 that a female American musicologist published the first specialist article on Barbara Strozzi. Today, it is generally accepted that she is one of the most important voices in the history of vocal chamber music. She is featured on a growing number of CDs, concert programmes and websites. However, although research has begun, a lively account of her life and work, accessible to a wider audience, has been lacking.

This audio biography brings together all the key documents and research that represent her – and also vividly introduces us to the unique cultural space in which the composer lived. The exuberance of Carnival, the development of the fledgling art of opera, and Venice - the "città galante"- are all linked to the phenomenon of "Barbara Strozzi" and her art. Listeners unfamiliar with this music are invited to rediscover lost treasures – and to get to know one of the great women of music history. Wiebke Puls, an actress at the Münchner Kammerspiele and a singer herself, lends her voice to Barbara Strozzi.