Maria Margherita Grimani (1680 – c.1720) was an Italian composer who, at some points in her life, was active in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Among her compositions was the first opera by a woman to be performed at the Vienna court theater. She may have lived at the

noble court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word "court" may also be appl ...

for periods between 1713 and 1718; however, she was not employed at the court as a musician. She may also have been one of a number of women composers at the Viennese court who were

canonesses Canoness is a member of a religious community of women living a simple life. Many communities observe the monastic Rule of St. Augustine. The name corresponds to the male equivalent, a canon. The origin and Rule are common to both. As with the ca ...

, a type of Augustinian

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

; others included

Caterina Benedicta Grazianini Caterina Benedicta Grazianini (''1685-1715'') was an Italian composer of oratorios in Vienna. She was among the female composers of oratorios in Vienna who, according to Wellesz, were regular canonesses, rather than employed at the court. This grou ...

, Maria de Raschenau, and

Camilla de Rossi Camilla de Rossi ( fl. 1670–1710) was an Italian composer known for composing oratorios in Vienna during the early 1700s. Although several women are known to have composed music in Northern Italy and Austria during this period, there is little ...

.Klein She was born Maria Margherita Vitalini, and married Giovanni Andrea Grimani (1672 - 1723), Doctor of Law, lawyer and lecturer at the University of Bologna from 1696 until his death. He wrote several legal works as well as some poetry and a wedding song for the marriage of senator Piriteo Malvezzi, Marquis of Castel Guelfo, and the Marquise Artemisia Magnani in 1696. Maria Margherita Grimani's known works include an opera, specifically a ''componimento dramatico'' or ''opus dramaticum'', which may or may not have been staged, ''Pallade e Marte'', dedicated in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

on April 5, 1713, and first performed at the imperial theater on the

nameday In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, among other parts of Christendom. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively that of a ...

of Emperor Charles VI on November 4, 1713, at the imperial theater. It was scored for two voices, oboe and string orchestra.Cusick Her

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

s were also performed at the imperial theater: ''La visitazione di Elisabetta'', performed in 1713 and again in 1718, and ''La decollazione di S Giovanni Battista'', performed in 1715. The

librettist A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

s are unknown. Both celebrate Charles's military success against the "infidels". All of Grimani's works use small forces—two singers, a couple of obbligato instruments, and a continuo group, including cello and

theorbo The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck and a second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box (a hollow box) with a wooden top, typically with a sound hole, and a neck extending ou ...

. Their form follows the standards of the time, as exemplified in

Alessandro Scarlatti Pietro Alessandro Gaspare Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 22 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer, known especially for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the most important representative of the Neapolitan school of opera. ...

's works. This included a number of

da capo aria The da capo aria () is a musical form for arias that was prevalent in the Baroque era. It is sung by a soloist with the accompaniment of instruments, often a small orchestra. The da capo aria is very common in the musical genres of opera and orator ...

s with

ritornelli A ritornello (Italian; "little return") is a recurring passage (music), passage in Baroque music for orchestra or choir, chorus. Early history The earliest use of the term "ritornello" in music referred to the final lines of a fourteenth-century ...

and recitative secco.Jackson

References

* * ''The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers'', edited by Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel. "Maria Margherita Grimani" Suzanne G. Cusick and Rudolf Klein, pg. 198, Norton and Company, New York and London, 1995. * ''New Historical Anthology of Music by Women'' edited by James R. Briscoe. "Maria Margherita Grimani" by Barbara Garvey Jackson, pp 99–100. Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN, 2004.

Notes

18th-century Italian composers Italian women classical composers Classical composers of church music Italian Roman Catholics Italian opera composers Oratorio composers Augustinian nuns Italian Baroque composers 18th-century Austrian musicians 18th-century Italian women Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Women opera composers 18th-century women composers {{italy-composer-stub