Visualizzazione post con etichetta Londra. Mostra tutti i post
Visualizzazione post con etichetta Londra. Mostra tutti i post
lunedì 30 maggio 2016
Guicciardi, Giovanni
A Londra con lo zio Fabrizio, ambasciatore di Rinaldo d'Este. Fabrizio Guicciardi ha lasciato varie memorie del suo Grand Tour in Europa.
AQUINO, Francesco Maria Venanzio d', principe di Caramanico
(Napoli 1738 –
Palermo 1795), diplomatico e massone napoletano, fu in contatto con i maggiori
circoli massonici europei. Dal 1780 al 1784 ambasciatore del Regno di Napoli a
Londra. DBI.
domenica 29 maggio 2016
Draghi, Giovanni Battista
ODNB:
(Rimini c.1640–1708),
musical performer and composer, may have been a brother of Antonio Draghi
(1635–1700), who was born in Rimini and became a leading court musician in
Vienna. Giovanni Battista Draghi served at a continental court (now
unidentified) before going to England to join an ensemble of Italian musicians
established under royal patronage in 1663. He is first mentioned on 12 February
1667, when Samuel Pepys heard him perform from memory a complete act of an
opera of which Draghi had written the libretto as well as the music. ‘Seignor
Baptista’, as Pepys called him, and the English equivalent, ‘Mr Baptist’,
became the names by which he was generally known.
Over the next two decades Draghi established an enviable reputation as a performer and composer. John Evelyn later described him as famous for ‘his playing on the harpsichord, few if any in Europe exceeding him’ and as ‘that excellent and stupendious Artist’ (Evelyn, 4.384–5, 25 July 1684; 4.404, 28 Jan 1685) . Little evidence of his performing career survives: most of the few references to his playing describe him accompanying singers, and his solo harpsichord music was probably improvised or played from memory. Many of the keyboard works extant in manuscripts or eventually collected in his Six Select Sutes of Lessons for the Harpsichord (1707) seem to be teaching material written for a select group of privileged pupils: the antiquarian and librarian Humphrey Wanley stated that Draghi was ‘Music-Master to Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Anne’ and that he ‘instructed her Majesty in Music’ (Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, 1.643, 2.271). BL, MS Mus. 1, a keyboard book containing music in Purcell's hand at one end and probably in Draghi's autograph at the other, may have belonged to a family which employed both musicians at different times.
In many respects Draghi adapted his compositional style to English expectations, but a few works are uncompromisingly Italianate, notably a long solo cantata, Qual spaventosa tromba (BL, Harley MS 1863). A trio sonata appears in BL, Add. MS 33236, a score which contains some of Purcell's earliest instrumental music and perhaps reflects the kind of repertory Purcell studied in the 1670s, although Draghi's composition does not provide a direct model for Purcell's own sonatas. Draghi contributed instrumental music, now unfortunately lost, to two major theatrical ventures of the 1670s: Thomas Shadwell's musical version of The Tempest (1674) and his Psyche (1675). The epilogue to Psyche identifies Draghi as ‘Master of the Italian Musick to the King’. Between 1673 and 1677 he may have taken over some duties in Queen Catherine's Roman Catholic chapel at Somerset House from Matthew Locke, with whom he collaborated on The Tempest and Psyche, and he officially succeeded Locke as the queen's organist in 1677. At some time after this date he commissioned a painting from Benedetto Gennari the younger, who had been employed as an artist for the chapel since 1674: its subject, the Christ child with St John the Baptist, was probably of special personal significance.
As a Catholic and a foreigner Draghi must have felt insecure at the time of the Popish Plot, and on 18 November 1679 he and three other Italian musicians petitioned the king for payment of four years' arrears of wages, on the grounds that they were about to be forced to leave the country. Draghi's position in the queen's chapel, however, provided him with protection during the immediate political crisis, and he remained a prominent figure in London musical life. A number of songs, some written for plays, were published in the four volumes of The Theater of Music (1685–7) and elsewhere. An English anthem, ‘This is the Day’ (William Andrews Clark Library, Los Angeles, MS fC6966/M4/A627/1700), was copied by Daniel Henstridge, probably in the mid-1680s when Henstridge was organist of Rochester Cathedral. In 1684 the rival organ builders Bernard Smith and Renatus Harris both set up instruments in the Temple Church, and Draghi was chosen to demonstrate Harris's organ in competition with Smith's, which was played by Blow and Purcell.
In 1687 Draghi was invited to compose the ode for the annual London celebration of St Cecilia's day. In his setting of John Dryden's From Harmony, from Heavenly Harmony Draghi produced a modern Italianate work grander in conception than any ode so far written by an English composer: its impact on his contemporaries is shown by the survival of four complete manuscript copies of the full score, and its influence is clearly apparent in later music by Blow and Purcell. About Christmas 1687 Draghi was appointed organist of James II's new Catholic chapel at Whitehall: this post was destined to be short-lived, but after the revolution of 1688 he continued to serve Queen Catherine until she returned to Portugal in 1692, and also enjoyed the patronage of Princess Anne. Draghi promoted public concerts, and in late 1692 brought to England a promising Italian female singer whom he took to sing to the princess (BL, Sloane MS 1388, fols. 77r–78v). In 1695 he was named as one of the organ and harpsichord teachers at a proposed royal academy, and on 25 July 1696 he witnessed a contract whereby the dancer Joseph Sorin joined Thomas Betterton's theatre company. On 24 February 1697 a birthday ode composed by him for Princess Anne, now lost, was performed at York Buildings.
By 1698 Draghi was seriously ill with gout and unable to earn his living. Concerts for his benefit took place on 30 March 1698 and 24 March 1701; in 1698 he was granted a pension of £100 a year by William III ‘in consideration of near 30 years' service in the royal family’, and this was later renewed by Queen Anne, from whom he received a separate pension of £50 (Shaw, 17, pt 2, 71). At the time of his death he lived in the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields, at which church he was buried on 13 May 1708; probate was granted to his widow, Sybilla, in the commissary court of London on 8 September (Guildhall Library, London, MS 9168/30, fol. 212), and on 28 July 1708 Queen Anne gave her £25 to cover the costs of her husband's funeral. It is not known whether Sybilla is to be identified with a ‘Mrs Baptist’ mentioned in May 1669 (Ashbee, Records, 8.194) or whether the Draghis had any children.
Robert Thompson
Over the next two decades Draghi established an enviable reputation as a performer and composer. John Evelyn later described him as famous for ‘his playing on the harpsichord, few if any in Europe exceeding him’ and as ‘that excellent and stupendious Artist’ (Evelyn, 4.384–5, 25 July 1684; 4.404, 28 Jan 1685) . Little evidence of his performing career survives: most of the few references to his playing describe him accompanying singers, and his solo harpsichord music was probably improvised or played from memory. Many of the keyboard works extant in manuscripts or eventually collected in his Six Select Sutes of Lessons for the Harpsichord (1707) seem to be teaching material written for a select group of privileged pupils: the antiquarian and librarian Humphrey Wanley stated that Draghi was ‘Music-Master to Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Anne’ and that he ‘instructed her Majesty in Music’ (Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, 1.643, 2.271). BL, MS Mus. 1, a keyboard book containing music in Purcell's hand at one end and probably in Draghi's autograph at the other, may have belonged to a family which employed both musicians at different times.
In many respects Draghi adapted his compositional style to English expectations, but a few works are uncompromisingly Italianate, notably a long solo cantata, Qual spaventosa tromba (BL, Harley MS 1863). A trio sonata appears in BL, Add. MS 33236, a score which contains some of Purcell's earliest instrumental music and perhaps reflects the kind of repertory Purcell studied in the 1670s, although Draghi's composition does not provide a direct model for Purcell's own sonatas. Draghi contributed instrumental music, now unfortunately lost, to two major theatrical ventures of the 1670s: Thomas Shadwell's musical version of The Tempest (1674) and his Psyche (1675). The epilogue to Psyche identifies Draghi as ‘Master of the Italian Musick to the King’. Between 1673 and 1677 he may have taken over some duties in Queen Catherine's Roman Catholic chapel at Somerset House from Matthew Locke, with whom he collaborated on The Tempest and Psyche, and he officially succeeded Locke as the queen's organist in 1677. At some time after this date he commissioned a painting from Benedetto Gennari the younger, who had been employed as an artist for the chapel since 1674: its subject, the Christ child with St John the Baptist, was probably of special personal significance.
As a Catholic and a foreigner Draghi must have felt insecure at the time of the Popish Plot, and on 18 November 1679 he and three other Italian musicians petitioned the king for payment of four years' arrears of wages, on the grounds that they were about to be forced to leave the country. Draghi's position in the queen's chapel, however, provided him with protection during the immediate political crisis, and he remained a prominent figure in London musical life. A number of songs, some written for plays, were published in the four volumes of The Theater of Music (1685–7) and elsewhere. An English anthem, ‘This is the Day’ (William Andrews Clark Library, Los Angeles, MS fC6966/M4/A627/1700), was copied by Daniel Henstridge, probably in the mid-1680s when Henstridge was organist of Rochester Cathedral. In 1684 the rival organ builders Bernard Smith and Renatus Harris both set up instruments in the Temple Church, and Draghi was chosen to demonstrate Harris's organ in competition with Smith's, which was played by Blow and Purcell.
In 1687 Draghi was invited to compose the ode for the annual London celebration of St Cecilia's day. In his setting of John Dryden's From Harmony, from Heavenly Harmony Draghi produced a modern Italianate work grander in conception than any ode so far written by an English composer: its impact on his contemporaries is shown by the survival of four complete manuscript copies of the full score, and its influence is clearly apparent in later music by Blow and Purcell. About Christmas 1687 Draghi was appointed organist of James II's new Catholic chapel at Whitehall: this post was destined to be short-lived, but after the revolution of 1688 he continued to serve Queen Catherine until she returned to Portugal in 1692, and also enjoyed the patronage of Princess Anne. Draghi promoted public concerts, and in late 1692 brought to England a promising Italian female singer whom he took to sing to the princess (BL, Sloane MS 1388, fols. 77r–78v). In 1695 he was named as one of the organ and harpsichord teachers at a proposed royal academy, and on 25 July 1696 he witnessed a contract whereby the dancer Joseph Sorin joined Thomas Betterton's theatre company. On 24 February 1697 a birthday ode composed by him for Princess Anne, now lost, was performed at York Buildings.
By 1698 Draghi was seriously ill with gout and unable to earn his living. Concerts for his benefit took place on 30 March 1698 and 24 March 1701; in 1698 he was granted a pension of £100 a year by William III ‘in consideration of near 30 years' service in the royal family’, and this was later renewed by Queen Anne, from whom he received a separate pension of £50 (Shaw, 17, pt 2, 71). At the time of his death he lived in the parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields, at which church he was buried on 13 May 1708; probate was granted to his widow, Sybilla, in the commissary court of London on 8 September (Guildhall Library, London, MS 9168/30, fol. 212), and on 28 July 1708 Queen Anne gave her £25 to cover the costs of her husband's funeral. It is not known whether Sybilla is to be identified with a ‘Mrs Baptist’ mentioned in May 1669 (Ashbee, Records, 8.194) or whether the Draghis had any children.
Robert Thompson
Sources
New Grove, 2nd edn · A. Ashbee and D.
Lasocki, eds., A biographical dictionary of English court musicians,
1485–1714, 2 vols. (1998) [incl. bibliography] · A catalogue of the
Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols. (1808–12) · J.
Redington, ed., Calendar of Treasury papers, 2, PRO (1871) · W. A. Shaw, ed., Calendar of treasury books, 17–18, PRO (1936–47) · R. T. Dart, ‘Purcell's chamber music’, Proceedings of the
Royal Musical Association, 85 (1958–9), 81–93, esp. 93 · Evelyn,
Diary · Pepys,
Diary · A. Ashbee, ed., Records
of English court music, 9 vols. (1986–96), vols. 5, 8 · P. Leech,
‘Musicians in the Catholic chapel of Catherine of Braganza, 1662–92’, Early
Music, 29 (2001), 570–87 · D. Baldwin, The Chapel Royal: ancient and
modern (1990) · C. Hogwood, ‘A new English keyboard manuscript of the
seventeenth century: autograph keyboard music by Draghi and Purcell’, British
Library Journal, 21 (1995), 161–75 · Highfill, Burnim & Langhans, BDA · C. L. Day and E. B. Murrie, English song-books, 1651–1702: a
bibliography with a first-line index of songs (1940) · M. Tilmouth, ‘A
calendar of references to music in newspapers published in London and the
provinces (1660–1719) [2 pts]’, Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle,
1 (1961); 2 (1962), 2–15 · P. Holman, Four and twenty fiddlers: the violin
at the English court, 1540–1690 (1993)
Albéri Francesco
(Rimini 1765 - Bologna 1836), pittore. Trasferitosi a Roma nel 1784, grazie ad una borsa di studio, fu allievo del
Corvi all'Accademia di San Luca, ove venne influenzato dal classicismo
raffaellesco. Recatosi a Londra per perfezionarsi, vi rimase fino al
1790, anno in cui fece ritorno a Rimini. ETO
Cfr. Boris Wilnitsky Fine Arts
Cfr. Boris Wilnitsky Fine Arts
AGUIARI Lucrezia (La Bastardella)
(Ferrara 1743 - Parma 1783), soprano. Si recò a Londra (1774-1780), dove
cantò ai Pantheon Concerts con l'obbligo di eseguire due sole arie per sera col
compenso di 100 sterline. Nel 1780 rientrò definitivamente in Italia.
sabato 28 maggio 2016
MANOCCHI Giuseppe
“Adam's often imported
draughtsmen watered down the style demanded by the brothers. Of these émigré figures
Giuseppe Manocchi was possibly the most significant: although his association
with it was short (1765–6), he decisively introduced stronger and bolder
colours to the London office. The use of dark backgrounds for Adam's Etruscan style in the interiors
of Derby House, London, Osterley Park, Middlesex, and Home House, London, may
be traced back to him.”
Cfr. ODNB s.v. Adam, Robert:
FORTEGUERRI Bartolomeo
Ambasciatore napoletano a Londra (DBI). Viaggiò in compagnia di Luigi Angiolini, il quale consegnò le sue riflessioni sull'Inghilterra e sulla Scozia ad un volume intitolato Lettere sopra l'Inghilterra e la Scozia.
Iscriviti a:
Post (Atom)