Bobby van Jaarsveld - H. O.L. Y

BONONCHINI (Bononcini) Giovanni Battista (18 VII 1670, Modena-9 VII 1747, Vienna) - Italian composer and cellist. He studied with his father - composer Giovanni Maria B., J.P. Colonna and with J. Buoni in Bologna. Early began to work as a composer, having written several instr. works. He was a singer and cellist in the church of San Petronio in Bologna (1687-88) and at the same time as bandmaster of the chapel of San Giovanni in Monte. He wrote oratorios and a church. to the music. In 1692-96 he lived in Rome. During this period he wrote operas: “Enemy of Love” (1692), “Hercules, or the Abduction of the Sabine Women” (1692), “Xerxes” (1694). With 1698 par. composer and cellist in Vienna, in 1702-03 - in Berlin, where there was a post. his opera Polyphemus (1702). In 1720 he was invited to London to work in the newly opened Kings Theater. In this theater post. his operas: Astarta (1720), Cyrus (1721), Griselda (1722),Herminia (1723), Calpurnia (1724), Astianax (1727), etc. Among other works by B. several. oratorio, church., instr. and chamber music. Also known as a violinist.