Giovanni Maria Ruggieri


Giovanni Maria Ruggieri or Ruggeri
was a Baroque composer from Italy. His dates of birth and death are uncertain, but he may have been born about 1665 in Verona and died around 1725. He is known to have flourished from 1689–1720.

Life

His major works were apparently composed in Venice. His first work, La Clotilde, is extant, and on its title page he described himself as an amateur; the librettist for the same work described him as being distinguished among amateurs and the peer of the most celebrated scholars of music. Other than these fragments, very little is known about his personal life. Archives in the Museo Correr in Venice indicate that he owned several properties and he may have been in the service of the noble Contarini family, to whom he wrote a letter in 1695. His early musical career comprises four collections of trio sonatas, both da camera and da chiesa, published at some time between 1689 and 1697, but these have since been lost. His surviving sonatas display considerable invention and ability with counterpoint. In 1696 Ruggieri began working full-time as a composer and presumably encountered considerable success, because his operas were often revived: Armida abbandonata was produced at least five times between 1707 and 1715. His Elisa was regarded by critics as a success, and it was the first ever opera buffa to be produced in the Republic of Venice.
As a composer of sacred music, he is an important influence on Vivaldi, who would later borrow extensively from Ruggieri's Gloria in D for his own two Glorias. Vivaldi is also said to have revised a work by Ruggieri ; this may well be, but there is no documentary proof of it.

Work

Operas
Sacred and vocal
Instrumental