Giovanni Bononcini: Works
Giovanni Bononcini (1670 - 1747) was an Italian Baroque composer, cellist, singer, and teacher. His compositions include works for cello, operas, masses, and a funeral anthem for the Duke of Marlborough. From 1720 to 1732 he was in London, where for a time his popularity rivaled that of George Frideric Handel. Bononcini's song Vado ben spesso cangiando loco was used by Franz Liszt in his suite for piano Années de pèlerinage: Deuxième année: Italie. Bononcini's 1694 opera Xerse included the aria Ombra mai fu, and parodied material from an opera, also caller Xerse, by the Italian composer Francesco Cavalli. Bononcini's Xerse was later adapted by Handel with a third, and best known, version of Ombra mai fu.
Giovanni Bononcini's Griselda is an opera in three acts. It uses Antonio Rolli's revised version of an Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno. Griselda premiered in London in 1722 and was quite popular. In his 1722 play The Conscious Lovers, the Irish writer and politician Richard Steele (1672 - 1729) commented about the opera:
". . . something in that Rural Cottage of Griselda, her forlorn Condition, her Poverty, her Solitude, her Resignation, her Innocent Slumbers, and that lulling Dolce Sogno that’s sung over her; it had an Effect upon me, that—in short I never was so well deceiv’d at any [other Opera]."
Probably the most famous song from Griselda is the aria Per la gloria d’adorarvi, still a popular selection for concert and recital performance. Other notable arias from that opera include Dolce sogno, deh le porta and Volgendo, a me lo sguardo.