History tells us that Rosanna Scalfi was a Venetian girl of modest origins when the nobleman Benedetto Marcello heard her singing in the evening on a gondola with other girls. He sought her out, took her on as a student and later married her in secret. Long attributed to her husband, Rosanna’s surviving manuscripts are now correctly catalogued and verified. Her twelve solo cantatas follow models by Alessandro Scarlatti and others, the texts concerned with every aspect of love. The music is innovative and tonally adventurous, with dramatically wide leaps and an impressive vocal range.