Giovanni Battista Lampugnani

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Giovanni Battista Lampugnani (* 1708 in Milan ; † June 2, 1788 ibid) was an Italian composer , harpsichordist and singing teacher.

Live and act

Giovanni Battista Lampugnani's father, Virgilio, may have been a composer. The first recorded opera performance of Lampugnani was in 1732 at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan. Further operas followed in various locations in northern Italy until 1742. In 1738 he received payment from the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for the composition of several sacred works. In 1743 he became resident composer at King's Theater in London, where his opera Rosane was performed in the same year , further operas followed. He left London because of the success of Christoph Willibald Gluck's operas . From 1745 he stayed again in Italy, where he composed operas for theaters in Padua and Milan. In the following years he traveled to various cities in Italy to lead the performances of his works there. In 1758 he became a harpsichordist at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan. During this time he corresponded with Johann Christian Bach and the Padre Martini . When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Mitridate, re di Ponto was performed in Milan in 1770 , Lampugnani helped the singers rehearse the roles; he played the second harpsichord in the first performances and led the orchestra in the following performances.

Leopold Mozart wrote on the occasion, “ If I had been told about 15 or 18 years ago, since Lampugnani in Engelland and Melchior Chiesa in Italy, […] had said that these men would serve your son's music and if he would play the piano had to go away, sit down and accompany his music, I would have referred such a fool to the fool's hospital "

Lampugnani worked at the Milan theater until the end of 1786, after which he lived until the end of his life in the parish of Santo Alessandro in Zebedia in Milan.

Several contemporary critics, including the composer and music writer Jean-Benjamin de La Borde, criticized the overemphasis on the orchestra, which can be found in many Italian opera composers of the time, including Lampugnanis. Charles Burney writes about the performance of Alfonso , (London, 1744) that the work lacks grandeur, but he discovers a graceful serenity in the melody of the fast arias and an elegant tenderness in the slow passages .

In addition to the 10 or so symphonies that were written from around 1750, Lampugnani composed several instrumental concerts and several collections of trio sonatas, some of which were published by the publisher Walsh in London.

literature

Web links

Commons : Giovanni Battista Lampugnani  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean-Benjamin de la Borde: Essai sur la Musique Ancienne et Moderne, Volume 3 , pp. 195, 1780
  2. ^ Antonio Rostagno: Entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 63 (2004)
personal data
SURNAME Lampugnani, Giovanni Battista
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer, harpsichordist and singing teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1708
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH June 2, 1788
Place of death Milan