Giovanni Francesco Busenello

Giovanni Francesco Busenello (b Venice, 24 Sept 1598; d Legnaro, nr Padua, 27 Oct 1659) was an Italian lawyer, librettist and poet of the 17th century.

Born to a high-class Venetian family, it is thought that he studied at the University of Padua, where according to himself he was taught by Paolo Sarpi and Cesare Cremonino. He began to practice law in 1623, and is thought to have been highly successful in his chosen profession. He was a member of several literary academies, notably the Umoristi, the Imperfetti, and the Accademia degli Incogniti: the last of these was to dominate the literary aspect of Venetian opera for many years. Busenello's verse output was prolific, and included several poems addressed to singers.

In musical history, he is best remembered for his five libretti, each written for the Venetian opera, and set by Claudio Monteverdi and Francesco Cavalli. His libretto for "Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne" (Francesco Cavalli, 1640) is heavily based on Giovanni Battista Guarini's "Il pastor fido", while "L'incoronazione di Poppea" (1642), set by Monteverdi, is noted among early libretti for the strength and vividness with which the individual characters are sketched. His other works, all set by Cavalli, are "La Didone" (1641), "La prosperità infelice di Giulio Cesare dittatore" (1646, but music lost or possibly never composed) and "La Statira" (1655).

References

*GroveOnline|Giovanni Francesco Busenello|Thomas Walker|07 October|2007

Bibliography

*P.J. Smith: The Tenth Muse: a Historical Study of the Opera Libretto (New York, 1970)
*A. Livingston: Una scappatella di Polo Vendramino e un sonetto di Gian Francesco Busenello (Rome, 1911)
*R. Ketterer: ‘Neoplatonic Light and Dramatic Genre in Busenello's L'incoronazione di Poppea and Noris's Il ripudio d'Ottava’, Music and Letters, lxxx (1999), 1–22
*W. Heller: ‘Tacitus Incognito: Opera as History in L'incoronazione di Poppea’, JAMS, lii (1999), 39–96
*I. Fenlon and P. Miller: The Song of the Soul: Understanding Poppea (London, 1992)