Antonia Padoani Bembo (c. 1640 – c. 1720) was an Italian composer and singer.

Life

She was born in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, the daughter of Giacomo Padoani (1603–1666), a doctor, and Diana Paresco (1609–1676); she married the Venetian noble Lorenzo

Bembo Bembo is a serif typeface created by the British branch of the Monotype Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text. It is a member of the " old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or roman style based on a design cut a ...

(1637–1703) in 1659. She had three children. She moved to Paris before 1676, possibly to leave a bad marriage. There she sang for

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

. Louis granted her a pension and housing at the Petite Union Chrétienne des Dames de Saint Chaumont, a religious community.Fontijn She was a contemporary of

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (, née Jacquet, 17 March 1665 – 27 June 1729) was a French musician, harpsichordist and composer. Life and works Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (née Jacquet) was born on March 17, 1665, into a ...

and

Barbara Strozzi Barbara Strozzi (also called Barbara Valle; baptised 6 August 1619 – 11 November 1677) was an Italian composer and singer of the Baroque Period. During her lifetime, Strozzi published eight volumes of her own music, and had more secular ...

Oeuvre

Six volumes of Bembo's music survive in manuscript at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

as the ''Produzioni armoniche'', most of them dedicated to Louis XIV. These contain a certain amount of autobiographical information, which has been corroborated through other sources. She was taught by

Francesco Cavalli Francesco Cavalli (born Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; 14 February 1602 – 14 January 1676) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian composer, organist and singer of the early Baroque music, Baroque period. He succeeded his teacher Claudio Monteverd ...

(who also taught

) by 1654 and wrote in all the major genres of the time, including

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

, secular and sacred cantatas, and ''petit'' and ''grand''

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s. Her work is a combination of French and Italian styles. She uses the virtuosic elements of Italian style of the period, as well as French dance forms. Much of her work is for soprano voice with continuo accompaniment. She wrote an opera called ''L'Ercole amante'' (1707), to a libretto by

Francesco Buti Francesco Buti (Narni, 1604 – Narni, 15 June 1682) was an Italian poet and librettist. Biography Abbot and doctor of law, he was secretary in Rome of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, nephew of Pope Urban VIII. In 1645 he emigrated to France with t ...

List of works

* ''Produzioni armoniche'', 41 arias and cantatas in Italian, French, and Latin. (vol. I) * ''Te Deum'' for 3 voices (vol. II, dedicated to

Marie Adélaïde of Savoy Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (6 December 1685 – 12 February 1712) was the wife of Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Burgundy. She was the eldest daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, and of Anne Marie d'Orléans. Her betrothal to the Duke ...

in 1704) * ''Serenata'' for 5 voices (vol. II) * ''2 mottetti'' (vol. III) * ''Te Deum'' for 5 voices (vol. III) * ''Salmo XIX'', for 3 voices (vol. III) * ''Ercole amante'', opera set to a libretto by Francesco Buti (1707) (vols. IV-V) * ' (vol. VI) (Seven Psalms of David) Claire Fontijn, ''Desperate Measures: The Life and Music of Antonia Padoani Bembo''. Oxford University Press. (2006)

Recordings

* ''The Seven Psalms of David, Vol. I'' (2004), La Donna Musicale * ''The Seven Psalms of David, Vol. II'' (2005), La Donna Musicale The texts for these psalms were written by

Élisabeth Sophie Chéron Élisabeth Sophie Chéron (3 October 1648, in Paris – 3 September 1711, in Paris) is remembered today primarily as a French painter, but she was a renaissance woman, acclaimed in her lifetime as a gifted poet, musician, artist, and academician. ...

References

*Claire Fontijn, Marinella Laini. "Antonia Bembo", ''

Grove Music Online ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'', ed. L. Macy (accessed September 18, 2006)
grovemusic.com
(subscription access). *Pendle, Karin. ''Women and Music: A History''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN. (2001) *Claire Fontijn, ''Desperate Measures: The Life and Music of Antonia Padoani Bembo''. Oxford University Press. (2006)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bembo, Antonia Italian Baroque composers 1640s births 1720s deaths Italian women classical composers 18th-century Italian composers 18th-century Italian women singers

Antonia Antonia may refer to: People * Antonia (name), including a list of people with the name * Antonia gens, a Roman family, any woman of the gens was named ''Antonia'' * Antônia (footballer) * Antônia Melo Entertainment * ''Antonia's Line'', or ...

18th-century women composers