Bontempi, Giovanni Andrea (EN)

Bontempi Giovanni Andrea, born Angelini, *1624, Perugia, †1 June 1705 Brufa (near Perugia), Italian composer, singer (castrato) and music historian. At the age of 11, he began his education in literature and music and, thanks to his guardian C. Bontempi (from whom he took his surname), he was sent to Rome to the famous school at the Oratorio dei Filippini. His stay there was decisive for his later musical and literary activities. At that time, he attracted the attention of V. Mazzocchi and became his student, and after leaving for Venice (1643), he joined the Cappella Marciana at St. Mark’s Basilica as a cantor (sometimes even replacing the conductor). From 1650, he stayed in Dresden at the court of the Saxon Elector Johannes Georg I as a singer and composer, and from 1651 he headed the private court chapel together with H. Schütz. It was then that Il Paride…, the first Italian opera staged in Dresden, was written. The success of this melodrama led to his return to Dresden (after several years in Italy), where Bontempi stayed from 1671 to 1680, receiving the title of engineer and “master of machinery” thanks to his technical and stage skills.

Bontempi’s compositional work includes operas. Among his theoretical works, Nova quatuor vocibus componendi methodus… is noteworthy, a work in which he presents a system of strict prima pratica counterpoint.

Literature: C. Mutini Angelini-Bontempi, Giovanni Andrea, in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 3, Treccani 1961, online version 2018; K. von Fischer Europejska myśl historyczna o muzyce do połowy XVIII wieku, “Muzyka” 23 (1978) no. 3; S. Berti Alcune inedite notizie biografiche su Angelini Botempi, in: “Esercizi: Musica e spetacolo”, vol. 11 (1992) no. 2.