Giovanni Bononcini
Giovanni Bononcini | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of the composer by Anthoni Schoonjans | |
| Born | 18 July 1670 Modena, Italy |
| Died | 9 July 1747 (aged 76) |
| Occupations |
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Giovanni Bononcini (or Buononcini)
Biography
Early years
Bononcini was born in
In 1685, at the age of 15, he published three collections of instrumental works (in two of which he gave his age as 13).
Rome
In the same year, he moved to Rome, where he entered the service of
Vienna and Berlin
Following the death of Colonna's wife Lorenza in August 1697, Bononcini left Rome for Vienna, where he entered the service of
Although his activities in the next decade are less well documented, he appears to have been in Venice for the production of a new opera during the carnival of 1706.[4][5] By this time Bononcini had an enviable international reputation: in the words of his fellow composer Francesco Geminiani, Camilla had "astonished the musical world by its departure from the dry, flat melody to which their ears had until then been accustomed".[4] By 1710, productions of Camilla (presumably based on Bononcini's version) had reached London as well as many cities across Italy.[4] At some time during this decade on one of his sojourns to Italy, he married Margherita Balletti. She came from a family of actors and commedia dell'arte players and was the sister-in-law of Luigi Riccoboni.[1]
London
From 1720 to 1732 he was in London, where for a time his popularity rivalled George Frideric Handel's, who had arrived in London in 1712. The Tories favoured Handel, while the Whig party favoured Bononcini.[2] Their competition inspired the epigram by John Byrom that made the phrase "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" famous. Handel steadily gained the ascendancy, and Bononcini became a pensioner of the Duchess of Marlborough, who had led his admirers.[2] Bononcini left London after charges of plagiarism were proven against him: he had palmed off a madrigal by Antonio Lotti as his own work.[3]
Final years
After leaving London in 1733, Bononcini travelled to France in the company of an adventurer, Count Ughi, who swindled him out of most of his property. In Paris, Bononcini gave concerts of his religious music at the Concert Spirituel and then moved on to Lisbon to become the cello teacher to the Portuguese king. In 1736 he returned to Vienna, where his opera Alessandro in Sidone and his oratorio Ezechia were performed in 1737. In dire financial straits by 1742, he petitioned Maria Theresa of Austria for help. In October of that year, she granted him a pension of 50 florins a month in recognition of his past service to the court. Bononcini died on 9 July 1747 in Vienna, impoverished and largely forgotten. After his death, his last major composition, a Te Deum which he had composed in 1741 for Francis I, was performed in celebration of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.[1]
Compositions
His earliest works for the cello are two Sinfonie included in a manuscript in the abbey of
Operas
- Eraclea pasticcio (1692)
- Xerse (1694)
- Tullo Ostillio (1694)
- Muzio Scevola (1695)
- Il trionfo di Camilla (1696)
- L'amore eroica fra pastori (1696)
- La clemenza di Augusto (1697)
- La fede pubblica (1699)
- Gli affetti più grandi, vinti dal più giusto (1701)
- Cefalo (1702)
- Polifemo (1702)
- Proteo sul Reno, poemetto dramattico (1703)
- Etearco (1707)
- Turno Aricino (1707)
- Mario fuggitivo (1708)
- Abdolomino (1709)
- Caio Gracco (1710)
- Astarto (1720)
- L'odio e l'amore (1721)
- Crispo (1721)
- Griselda (1722)
- Erminia (1723)
- Calphurnia (1724)
- Astianatte (1727)
- Alessandro in Sidone (1737)
- Zenobia (1737)
Serenatas
- La nemica d'Amore (1692)
- La nemica d'amore fatta amante (August 10, 1693)[7]
- La costanza non gradita nel doppio amore d'Aminta (1694)
- La notte festiva (1695)
- Amore non vuol diffidenza (1695)
- Amor per amore (1696)
- L'Euleo festeggiante (1699)
- La gara delle quatri stagioni festa in musica (1699)
- Il fiore delle Eroine Trattenimento in musica (1704)
- Il ritorno di Guilio Cesare festa in musica (1704)
- La nuova gara di Giunione e Pallade festa in musica (1705)
- Endimione favola per musica (1706)
Other works
- XII Trattenimenti da camera, Op. 1 (1685)
- XII Concerti da camera, Op. 2 (1685)
- Sinfonias, Opp. 3–6
- 4 Messe brevi (1688)
- XII Duetti da camera, Op. 8 (1691)
- Oratorio San Nicola di Bari (Rome 1693)
- Oratorio La Conversione di Maddalena (Vienna 1701)
- Il natale di Giunone festeggiato in Samo (1708)
- Li sagrifici di Romolo per la salute di Roma (1708)
- L'arrivo della gran madre degli dei in Roma (1713)
- Divertimenti da camera (1722)
- XII (Trio) Sonatas for the Chamber (1732)[clarification needed]
- Oratorio Ezechia (Vienna 1737)
- Te Deum in C minor (1741)
- Over 300 cantatas
References
- ^ a b c Frajese, Carlo (1971). "Bononcini, Giovanni". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 12. Retrieved 17 July 2023..
- ^ The American Cyclopædia.
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 213.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.(subscription required)
- ^ JSTOR 956529.(subscription required)
- ISBN 978-8855430272.
- ^ La nemica d'amore fatta amante, Ensemble 415 led by Chiara Banchini, Adriana Fernandez (soprano), Martín Oro (countertenor), Furio Zanasi (baritone), Alpha Classics 2003, via Chandos Records
External links
- Free scores by Giovanni Bononcini in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
- Giovanni Battista Bononcini: a short biography
- Free scores by Giovanni Bononcini at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- "Giovanni Bononcini: Two Sinfonie per violoncello e basso continuo", score and analysis by Guido Olivieri, Società Editrice di Musicologia
- 1738 portrait by unknown artist, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Bologna
