Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:54:33.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Musicians and Librettists in the Correspondence of Gio. Giacomo Zamboni (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Mss Rawlinson Letters 116–138)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Lowell Lindgren
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Gio. Giacomo Zamboni, merchant, diplomat and amateur harpsichordist, was born in Florence on 26 July 1683, arrived in London late in 1711 and lived there until his death on 8 April 1753. His career closely parallels that of George Frideric Handel, composer, manager and harpsichordist, who was born in Hanover in 1685, arrived in London late in 1710 and lived there from late 1712 until his death in 1759. When these two men arrived in London, opera in Italian was a novelty at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, which had just begun to employ Italian singers, instrumentalists, composers, librettists and stage designers. During the ensuing decades, there was an unprecedented influx of Italian performers and creators who, like Handel and other ‘outlandish’ personnel at this theatre, found that salaries were higher, working conditions were better and freedom was greater in England than in their own lands. Many therefore stayed as long as possible, and their artistic accomplishments as well as their intricate interactions with British and foreign patrons, diplomats, merchants and musicians are fascinating endeavours that deserve detailed study. At present, the best survey is that in George Dorris, Paolo Rolli and the Italian Circle in London, 1715–44 (The Hague and Paris, 1967), which focuses upon literary accomplishments. The essential base for any such study must, of course, be primary source materials, which include letters and other documents as well as librettos and scores. My hope is that the passages cited below from 458 items, most of which have never before been printed, will significantly broaden our base for study of ‘the Italian circle’ in London between 1716 and 1750.

Type
Research Article
Information
Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle , Volume 24 , 1991 , pp. 1 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Musical observations from Zamboni's correspondence were first cited in my article concerning ‘Three Great Noises’ (1975), 583. I have cited others in ‘Parisian Patronage’ (1977), ‘Ariosti's London Years’ (1981), ‘La camera’ (1984) and ‘Cembalari’ (1989). These and the other writings that will be cited in editorial comments with an abbreviated title or a surname plus an abbreviated title are the following:Google Scholar
ADB Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, ed. Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich, 56 vols. (Leipzig, 1875–1912)Google Scholar
BDA A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800, ed. Philip Highfill Jr, Kalman Burnim and Edward Langhans (Carbondale, 1973–), 12 vols, by 1987Google Scholar
DBI Dizionario biografico degli italiani, ed. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana (Rome, 1960–), 36 vols. by 1989Google Scholar
DNB The Dictionary of National Biography, ed. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, 66 vols. (London, 1885–1901); repr. in 22 volumes (Oxford, 1921–22). Citations by volume and page numbers refer to the reprint.Google Scholar
NDB Neue Deutsche Biographie, ed. Historische Kommission bei der Bayrischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin, 1953–), 15 vols. by 1987Google Scholar
Boalch, Donald H., Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440–1840 (2nd edn, Oxford, 1974) Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Baronetage, 6 vols. (Exeter, 1900–09; repr. Gloucester, 1983)Google Scholar
Boalch, Donald H., The Complete Peerage, ed. Vicary Gibbs et al., 12 vols. (London, 1910–59)Google Scholar
Croft-Murray, Edward, Decorative Painting in England, 1537–1837, 2: The Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (London, 1970)Google Scholar
Deutsch, Otto Erich, Handel: a Documentary Biography (London, 1955; repr. New York, 1974)Google Scholar
Dorris, George E., Paolo Rolli and the Italian Circle in London, 1715–44 (The Hague and Paris, 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, Elizabeth, The Royal Academy of Music (1719–28): The Institution and Its Directors (New York, 1989)Google Scholar
Händel-Handbuch, 4: Dokumente zu Leben und Schaffen, auf der Grundlage von Otto Erich Deutsch, Handel: A Documentary Biography, ed. Editionsleitung der Hällische Händel-Ausgabe (Kassel, 1985)Google Scholar
Hausmann, Friedrich, Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648), 2: 1716–63 (Zurich, 1950)Google Scholar
Hawkins, John, A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (2nd edn, London, 1875; repr. New York, 1963)Google Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘The Accomplishments of Nicola Francesco Haym (1678–1729)’, Studi Musicali, 16 (1987), 247–380Google Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘Ariosti's London Years, 1716–29’, Music and Letters, 62 (1981), 331–51Google Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘A Bibliographic Scrutiny of Dramatic Works Set by Giovanni and His Brother Antonio Maria Bononcini’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1972)Google Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘La camera di Gaetano Berenstadt, contralto evirato (c1690–1735)’, Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, 19 (1984), 36–112Google Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘Cembalari e compositori per clavicembalo nella corrispondenza di Giovanni Giacomo Zamboni’, Recercare: Rivista per lo studio e la pratica delta musica antica, 1 (1989), 211–23Google Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘Parisian Patronage of Performers from the Royal Academy of Music’, Music and Letters, 58 (1977), 4–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindgren, Lowell, ‘The Three Great Noises “Fatal to the Interests of Bononcini“’, The Musical Quarterly, 61 (1975), 560–83Google Scholar
London Stage, 1660–1800, 2: 1700–29 and 3: 1729–47, ed. respectively by Emmett L. Avery and Arthur H. Scouten (Carbondale, 1960–61)Google Scholar
Mecatti, Giuseppe Maria, Storia genealogica delta nobiltà e cittadinanza di Firenze, 1 (Naples, 1754)Google Scholar
Valenti, Megale, Maria, Anna, ‘II viaggio europeo di Antonio Cocchi attraverso le sue “Effemeridi“’, Miscellanea di storia delle esplorazioni, 5 (Genoa, 1980), 77–146Google Scholar
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London, 1980)Google Scholar
Scots Peerage, 9 vols., ed. James Balfour Paul (Edinburgh, 1904–14)Google Scholar
Thieme, Ulrich, Becker, Felix et al., Allgemeines Lexikon des bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols. (Leipzig, 1907–50)Google Scholar
Wanley, Humfrey, The Diary, 1715–26, ed. Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols. (London, 1966)Google Scholar
Weaver, Robert Lamar, and Weaver, Norma Wright, A Chronology of Music in the Florentine Theater, 1590–1750 (Detroit, 1978)Google Scholar
Wurzbach, Constantin von, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 60 vols. (Vienna, 1856–91)Google Scholar