Giuseppe Bonno

(1711 - 1789)

Composer. His father was an imperial footman from Brescia. The boy's initial musical instruction was with the Kapellmeisterof St. Stephen's, Johann Georg Reinhardt. From 1726 he studied composition with Durante and Leo in Naples. When he returned to Vienna ten years later, he worked his way up to a post as court composer, which he assumed in 1739. His early successes in the city were the opera Trajano(1736) and an oratorio, Eleazaro(1739). In 1749 he became Kapellmeisterto Joseph Frederick of Sachsen-Hildburghausen, where Gluck and Dittersdorf also served. Upon the death of Florian Gassmann in 1774 he was appointed imperial Kapellmeister.Bonno was active in Viennese musical life until his retirement in 1788; he was well acquainted with the Mozarts, among others. He composed thirty stage works, four oratorios, some thirty Masses, and many other sacred vocal works and arias.





XIIC: From the 'Galant' to the 'Biedermayer' |The Research Periods