Girolamo Abos

Contents

Girolamo Abos, last name also given Avos or d'Avossa and baptized Geronimo Abos (16 November 1715 – May 1760), was a Maltese-Italian composer of both operas and church music.

Born in Valletta, Malta, son of Gian Tommaso Abos, whose father was a Frenchman from Castellane and Rosa Farrugia, Abos studied under Leonardo Leo and Francesco Durante in Naples. In 1756, he became Maestro al Cembalo (Director of Music) at the Italian Theatre in London. In 1758 he returned to Italy as a teacher at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini in Naples, where Giovanni Paisiello was one of his pupils . He wrote fourteen operas for the opera houses in Naples, Rome, and London, of which Tito Manlio (Naples, 1751) was the most successful. After 1758 he composed a good deal of church music, including seven masses and several litanies. He died in Naples. Many of his sacred works, oratorios, and the opera Pelopida have been edited by the Australian musicologist and conductor Richard Divall, and are freely available.

List of operas composed by Abos

TitleGenreSubdivisionsLibrettoPremière datePlace, theatre
Le due zingare similiopera buffaAntonio Palomba1742Naples, Teatro Nuovo
Il gelosocommediaAntonio Palombaspring 1743Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini
Le furberie di Spillettocommedia per musica3 acts(Première libretto, in Italian)Carnival 1744Florence, Teatro del Cocomero
La serva padronaopera buffaGennaro Antonio FedericoCarnival 1744Naples
La moglie gelosacommediaAntonio Palomba1745Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini
Adriano in Siriadramma per musicaPietro MetastasioCarnival 1746Florence, Teatro della Pergola
Artasersedramma per musica3 actsPietro Metastasio (Première libretto, in Italian)1746Venice, Teatro di San Giovanni Crisostomo)
Pelopidadramma per musica3 actsGaetano Roccaforte (Première libretto, in Italian)Carnival 1747Rome, Teatro Argentina
Alessandro nelle Indiedramma per musica3 actsPietro Metastasio (Première libretto, in Italian)July 1747Ancona, Teatro La Fenice
Arianna e Teseodramma per musica3 actsPietro Pariati (Première libretto, in Italian)26 December 1748Rome, Teatro delle Dame
Tito Manliodramma per musicaGaetano Roccaforte30 May 1751Naples, Teatro San Carlo
Erifiledramma per musica3 actsGiovanni Battista Neri (Première libretto, in Italian)Carnival 1752Rome, Teatro delle Dame
Lucio Vero o sia Il Vologesoopera seriaApostolo Zeno18 December 1752Naples, Teatro San Carlo
Il Medodramma per musicaCarlo Innocenzo Frugoni1753Turin, Teatro Regio