Ferri, Baldassare, called Balcerek *9 December 1610 Perugia, †18 September 1680 Perugia, Italian soprano. In 1621 he was a discantist for the Bishop of Orvieto, Cardinal Crescenzio.
He probably spent the turn of 1624/25 in Rome. Prince Władysław Vasa engaged him for the royal chapel in Warsaw, though the exact date is unknown; 1625 is generally assumed. Ferri remained at the Polish court until the autumn of 1655, being the highest-paid member of the chapel and enjoying immense fame throughout the country. On 13 March 1643, he was granted the title of Knight of St. Mark by the Republic of Venice (there is no evidence he left Poland except for a visit to the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in June 1652). From 1 October 1655 he joined the imperial chapel in Vienna, where he remained until 1675 and was highly esteemed. He then returned to Perugia. Around 1671, he performed as a guest in London in Matthew Locke’s Psyche in the role of Zephyr. His contemporary A. Bontempi, in his Historia musica (1695), wrote with the highest admiration of Ferri’s phenomenal technique and extraordinarily long breath, describing him as an exceptional phenomenon. Ferri is considered one of the greatest singers of the 17th century.
Literature: G. Conestabile Notizie biografiche di B. Ferri, musico celebratissimo, Perugia 1846; G. Monaldi Cantanti evirati celebri, Rome 1919; A. Heriot The Castrati in Opera, London 1956, Italian trans. Milan 1962.
