# Giovanni Bononcini



## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Bononcini is yet another Baroque composer whose fame faded and whose music is only now again being rediscovered. Born in Modena, Italy in 1670, he was orphaned while still young and left in poverty, but continued lessons in music. He was soon recognized as an outstanding cellist. He was summoned to Milan by Francesco II d' Este where he composed an oratorio and performed in the orchestra of Cardinal Pamphili, a major patron of the arts, and one of Handel's early supporters. He was called to Rome in 1692, to work for the Colonna family. Here he collaborated with the librettist, Silvio Stampiglia, composing 5 operas, an oratorio, and a number of cantatas, serenades, sonatas, etc... Two of the operas were particularly successful: _Xerxes_, the subject of which would be also set by Handel some 40+ years later in his opera, _Serse_, parodied an earlier opera of the same theme composed by Francesco Cavalli. The second opera, _Il trionfo di Camilla_ became the first truly successful Italian opera in Britain, performed no less than 64 times.

Bononcini spent nearly the next 30 years between courts in Vienna, Berlin, and Rome, developing a stellar reputation across the whole of Europe. in 1720 he was invited to London by Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington. Bononcini was appointed Director of the King's Theatre (formally Handel's post) and became a composer for the Royal Academy of Music, which Handel headed. Between 1721-22 more performances of Bononcini's operas were undertaken than by any other composer. During that time he has 71 performances to Handel's 26. The apparent competition between the two composers inspired the epigram by John Byrom that made the phrase "Tweedledum and Tweedledee" famous. In reality, there may have been less bad blood between the two composers than is sometimes suggested. During this same time frame, the castrati were becoming a dominant element in Italian opera and on the London stage. In May 1719 Lord Chamberlain Thomas Holles, the Duke of Newcastle ordered Handel to look for new singers. Handel travelled to Dresden to attend the newly-built opera. He saw Teofane by Antonio Lotti, and engaged the cast for the Royal Academy of Music. The two men also worked together on several occasions, Bononcini playing the cello, and Handel the harpsichord. They even participated with a third composer, Filippo Amadei in writing a collective work entitled, _Muzio Scevola_.

The rivalry between the two composers, however, was played up in the public opinion as the result of various political considerations. The two were seen as representing the old tensions of the Catholics vs the Protestants. There was also those who supported the Royal family and those who opposed them. Handel was supported by the King; Bononcini by the Duke of Marlborough, who died in 1722. With Handel's assumption of the directorship of the Haymaker Theater he ruled over the London musical life. Bononcini continued to have operas performed, but in no way as frequently as before (nor in excess of those performances of Handel). He also composed for private parties of the daughter of the Duke of Marlborough.

His London career came to an end in 1731 when it was proved that he had plagiarized a composition by the composer, Antonio Lotti. Bononcini left for Paris where he composed a body of religious music including the _Concerts Spirituels_ and a _Te Deum._ In his final decade and a half he traveled frequently between Paris, Vienna, and Lisbon, performing and composing.

In spite of his fame and reputation and the body of quality music he had composed, including 30+ operas, 350 cantatas, 4 masses, several oratorios, and and vast array of other instrumental and vocal music, Bononcini was rapidly forgotten... like many of the composers of the Baroque. Handel's reputation has only been rehabilitated within the last 2 decades with the rediscovery of his vast oeuvre of operas and oratorios. Vivaldi's reputation is currently undergoing re-evaluation as many of his vocal and operatic compositions are published and performed for the first time. Bononcini, Alessandro Scarlatti, Johann Adolf Hasse, and many other Baroque composers still await rediscovery.

If this disc is any indication, Bononcini is certainly worth waiting for... and certainly worth rediscovery. La Nemica d'Amore Fatta Amante, is a brief pastorale... in which the nymph, Clori, formerly sworn enemy of love, falls in love Tirsi, the amorous shepherd, who has stirred her heart with his songs. There is an attempt by the jealous satyr, Fileno, to ruin their love, but this is to no avail as the opera ends with an aria to endless fidelity. Not a grand musical narrative in the manner of Handel's later operas, this "serenata" is quite in the manner of Handel's own youthful Italian cantatas... and maintains a similar beautiful Italianate fluidity, transparency, and joy.


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