Bononcini, Giovanni: Camilla (Stampiglia) Naples 1696
£84.00
Facsimile: Revised by Nicola Haym with English translation versified by Mr. Northman for London, 1706.
Royal College of Music, MS 779 and printed libretto, Jacob Tonson (1706)
Introduction by Lowell Lindgren
When Il trionfo di Camilla, regina de Volsci was first performed at the San Bartolomeo Theatre in Naples on 27 December 1696, it crowned the first five years of collaboration between the librettist Silvio Stampiglia and the composer Giovanni Bononcini. Bononcini’s Camilla served as the basis for 23 Italian revivals between 1698 and 1719. Camilla had been staged in London in 1706-9 and 1717-19, and it was produced there once again in 1726-8, when Bononcini was in the city. Unlike the Italian revivals of 1698-1719, the London productions of 1706-28 were in English translation and consisted almost entirely of Bononcini’s original aria settings.