Brunetti

family of Italian musicians

Brunetti, family of Italian musicians: (1) Giovan Gualberto Brunetti, composer; b. Pistoia, April 24, 1706; d. Pisa, May 20, 1787. He studied with Atto Gherardeschi, in Pisa with Clari (1723–28), and in Naples at the Turchini Cons. (1728–33). After serving as maestro di cappella to the Duke of Monte Nero, he was secondo maestro at the Turchini Cons. (1745–54). He then was maestro di cappella in Pisa (from 1754). In 1756 he was made a member of Bologna’s Accademia Filarmonica. He was ordained a priest in 1764.

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera : Amore imbratta il senno (Naples, 1733); Don Pasquino (Naples, 1735); II corrivo (Naples, 1736); Ortensio (Naples, Carnival 1739); Alessandro nell’Indie (Pisa, Carnival 1763); Arminio (Luca, 1763); Temistocle (Lucca, 1776). Also Ester, oratorio (Florence, 1758).

(2)Antonio Brunetti, violinist, son of the preceding; b. Naples, c. 1740; d. Salzburg, Dec. 25, 1786. He was Hofmusikdirektor and Hofkonzertmeister in Salzburg from 1776, succeeding Mozart as Konzertmeister in 1777. His intimacy with Maria Judith Lipps, the sister-in-law of Michael Haydn, resulted in the illegitimate birth of a child in 1778. Later that year they were finally married. Mozart wrote his works K.261, 269, 373, and 379 for Brunetti but personally loathed him. (3) Giuseppe Brunetti, composer, brother of the preceding; b. Naples, c. 1741; d. after 1780. He was active mainly in Pisa (1754–75), Siena (1779), and Florence (1780). He wrote the operas Didone (Siena, 1759) and Galatea (Braunschweig, 1762).

(4) Antonio Brunetti, composer, probably son of the preceding; b. c. 1767; d. after 1845. He was maestro di cappella at Chieti Cathedral (1790–1800), at Urbino Cathedral (1810–16), and in Macerata (1816–26). In 1826 he was recalled to his former position at Urbino Cathedral, but in 1827 he resigned without having assumed his duties.

orks

DRAMATIC: Opera: Lo sposo di tre e marito di nessuno (Bologna, 1786); La stravaganza in campagna (Venice, 1787); 11 Bertoldo (Florence, Carnival 1788); Vologeso re de’ Parti (Florence, 1789); Le nozze per invito, ossia Gli amanti capricciosi (Rome, 1791); Fatima (Brescia, 1791); Li contrasti per amore (Rome, 1792); II pazzo glorioso (Rome, Carnival 1797); II libretto alla moda (Naples, Carnival 1808); La colomba contrastata, ossia La bella Carbonara (Rimini, Carnival 1813); Amore e fedeltà alla prova (Bologna, May 1814); La fedeltà coniugale (Parma, Jan. 30, 1815).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire