Sotto le ali della «grand’aquila»: L’Euleo festeggiante di Giovanni Bononcini

The serenata L’Euleo festeggiante nel ritorno d’Alessandro Magno dall’Indie was composed by Giovanni Bononcini in honor of the twenty-first birthday of the Hapsburg Emperor Joseph I and performed on August 9th, 1699, in the gardens of the Palazzo della Favorita in Vienna.
This essay analyzes the serenata in light of two of the major sources for the Viennese performance: the anonymous printed libretto (Vienna, S. C. Cosmerovio, 1699), and the manuscript score which is now preserved in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek di Vienna. The libretto, printed as was usual in Italian and German, contains many details concerning the premiere, such as the names of the composers of the dance music and of the choreographers; it also contains the invaluable engraving made by Johann Ulrich Kraus of the stage set created by Lodovico Burnacini for the occasion. The score — part of the prestigious musical collection of Leopold I, preserved in the imperial Schlafkammerbibliothek — contains important details missing in the libretto and names the ten singers involved, prominent among them the soprano Vincenzo Oliviciani, the tenor Silvio Garghetti, and the prodigious bass Raniero Borrini.
Following an historical / stylistic contextualization of the serenata, and a dramaturgical / musical analysis of the same, some examples will illustrate Bononcini’s compositional characteristics and his vocal and instrumental writing, with particular attention to aspects of timbre and to stylistic-structural dimensions. A coda will offer a first outline of the reception of L’Euleo festeggiante, which was performed in Bologna “for the entertainment of the Nobility” (for which I propose a new date), and which was the subject of a singular transformation into the oratorio La città di Sion festeggiante nel ritorno di Davide dalla valle di Raffaim (Bologna, 1702).