Reassessing Giovanni Bononcini’s Vocal Art beyond a Handel-Centric Narrative: Life, Output and Stylistic Profile

Abstract

This article offers an original historical–musicological reassessment of Giovanni Bononcini’s vocal art, arguing that his reputation has been shaped disproportionately by a Handel‑centric narrative and by anecdotal accounts of rivalry rather than sustained engagement with his musical texts. It seeks to address a persistent lacuna in Baroque historiography shaped by a predominantly "Handel-centric" narrative, which has tended to marginalize Bononcini's artistic profile and historical agency. By reconstructing his trajectory from early training in Modena and Bologna to professional activity in Rome, Vienna, Berlin, and, most prominently, London during the Royal Academy of Music period, the study highlights the ways in which Bononcini negotiated the distinct demands of court patronage and the commercial theatre, and how these contexts contributed to both the consolidation and erosion of his reputation. Methodologically, the study combines contextual biographical reconstruction with genre‑sensitive close reading and stylistic analysis (formal design, text‑setting, and orchestration) of selected representative works from opera, cantata, and oratorio. Across these case studies, itshow how Bononcini’s instrumental background—especially his command of bass‑line agency and continuo rhetoric—contributes to a distinctive vocal profile that balances lyrical clarity with structural economy and affective precision. The findings refine current historiography by restoring Bononcini’s place within early eighteenth‑century transnational operatic culture and by identifying underexplored sources and performance‑practice questions for further research. The article concludes with a brief review of current scholarship and proposes that advances in critical editing, systematic manuscript cataloguing, and performance-based research are essential for a fuller reassessment and sustained rediscovery of Bononcini's oeuvre.