Girolamo Abos (1715-1760)
- Magnificat à 4:o Concertato con Strum.ti
Performers: Zoe Brown (soprano); Myriam Arbouz (alto); George Pooley (tenor); Mauro Borgioni (bass);
Die Kölner Akademie; Michael Alexander Willens (conductor)
Further info: Girolamo Abos (1715-1760) - Messa a due cori (1756)
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Maltese composer and teacher. Born into a musical family, his
grandfather, who was French, settled in Malta in 1661. Girolamo Abos was
sent to Naples at the age of 14 to study at the Conservatorio dei
Poveri di Gesù under Gaetano Greco, Francesco Durante and Gerolimo
Ferrara. His first opera for Naples was 'Le due zingare simili', an
opera buffa staged at the Teatro Nuovo in 1742. The same year he was
appointed deputy to maestro di cappella Ignazio Prota at the
Conservatorio di Sant’Onofrio a Porta Capuana in a post he held until
his death. On 29 May 1752 he married Angela Maria Gauttier, by whom he
had two children. In 1754 he also became secondo maestro at the
conservatory Pietà dei Turchini, but retired from the post on 11 July
1759 and was succeeded by Pasquale Cafaro. He also occasionally served
as maestro di cappella at several important Neapolitan churches. As a
composer, he wrote at least 16 operas (mostly seria), many of which were
performed internationally. In addition he composed at least one
symphony (1735) and numerous sacred works, among which the Stabat mater
(1758) is the best known. He was not related to the composer active in
Naples, Giuseppe Avossa (1708-1796), despite some mistaken attributions
exist among manuscript copies.
