Giovanni Battista Bononcini (1670-1747)
- L'Oracolo d'Apollo (1707)
Performers: Jörg Wаschіnskі (countertenor); Grаdus ad Parnаssum ensemble;
Tοn Kοοpman (conductor)
Painting: Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651) - Apollo and Diana Punishing Niobe by Killing her Children (1591)
Further info: Giovanni Battista Bononcini: L'Oracolo d'Apollo
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Composer and cellist, son of Giovanni Maria Bononcini (1642-1678). He was orphaned at age eight and moved to Bologna, where he studied at San Petronio with Giovanni Paolo Colonna. Owing to three instrumental publications by age 15, he was admitted into the Accademia Filarmonica on 30 May 1686. In 1687, he became maestro di cappella at the church of San Giovanni in Monte. In 1691, Bononcini went to Rome, entered the service of the Colonna family and the Spanish ambassador, and began working with the librettist Silvio Stampiglia. Bononcini’s opera Il Trionfo di Camilla (“Camilla’s Triumph,” 1696) was immediately brought to Naples and produced in 18 other Italian cities by 1710; in London, it was given 63 times between 1706 and 1710 in the very first years of Italian opera there. After Lorenzo Colonna died in August 1697, Bononcini joined the court of Emperor Leopold I in Vienna and remained until 1712. Then, he entered the service of Emperor Charles VI’s ambassador to Rome, Count Gallas. In the summer of 1719, the Earl of Burlington engaged Bononcini for the newly established Royal Academy of Music in London, and his works dominated the inaugural season 1720-21. Despite this success, his ties to various Jacobite patrons who supported Stuart claims to the English throne and his Catholic religion apparently prevented him from being engaged for the following season. He mounted his opera Ermine in Paris in 1723, was reengaged by the Royal Academy for the season of 1723-24, went to France again in summer 1724, and entered the service of the Duchess of Marlborough, for whom he directed private concerts consisting mostly of his own music. He was caught out in an embarrassing case of unacknowledged borrowing from Antonio Lotti, a practice quite common at the time, at a meeting of the Academy of Ancient Music. The episode also besmirched the reputation of his friend, the composer Maurice Greene. Shortly after that, Bononcini left England and spent time in Paris (spring 1733), Madrid (December 1733), and Lisbon (until 1736) before returning to Vienna. The Empress Maria Theresa granted him a small pension, which allowed a modest retirement. He was one of the most successful opera composers of the Baroque, he and his works appeared in Naples, Rome, Venice, Vienna, London, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, and countless smaller venues. He composed 31 opere serie, 21 serenatas, 7 Italian oratorios, 8 concerted Latin motets, an anthem, and a significant body of instrumental music, including 12 concerti da camera, 12 trattenimenti da camera, 48 sinfonie for various combinations of instruments, 12 trio sonatas, 8 divertimenti da camera, and 6 duos for violoncello, Bononcini’s principal instrument. Among his roughly 300 extant cantatas is Impara a non dar fede, cited by Benedetto Marcello as a standard audition piece for singers in the late Baroque.
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