Russia, 1739 1740 - ?

Italian composer and singer.

She was the daughter of the (?Venetian) scenographer and librettist Girolamo Bon (Boni, Bonno, Bono, Bonn, Le Bon, Buon, Bunon) and the Bolognese singer Rosa Ruvinetti Bon. In 1743, at the age of four, she entered the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice as a pupil.
She probably rejoined her parents at some time during their engagements at St Petersburg, Dresden, Potsdam and Regensburg between 1743 and late 1754.
By 1755 she and her family were in Bayreuth in the service of Margrave Friedrich of Brandenburg Culmbach and his wife Wilhelmine, sister of Frederick the Great. After Wilhelmine’s death in 1758 music at Bayreuth declined.
In 1759–60 the Bon family all sang in opera performances directed by Girolamo in Pressburg.
On 1 July 1762 the three Bons were contracted to serve the Esterházy court of Prince Nicolaus at Eisenstadt, where Anna remained until at least 25 April 1765 (Haydn wrote several roles for her mother).
By 1767 she was resident in Hildburghausen, married to the singer Mongeri.

Bibliography:

E.L. Gerber: Neues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkunstler Die Musikforschung
H. Heussner: ‘Der Musikdrucker Balthasar Schmid in Nurnberg’ (1963)
H.C.R. Landon: Haydn: Chronicle and Works (London, 1976–80)
G. Rostirolla: ‘L’organizzione musicale nell’Ospedale veneziano della Pietà al tempo di Vivaldi’, Nuova rivista musicale italiana XIII (1979)
S. Fortino: ‘Anna Bon’, Women Composers: Music through the Ages, ed. S. Glickman and M.F. Schleifer (New York, 1998)
Grove Music Online: www.oxfordmusiconline.com

Author:

Jane Schatkin Hettrick