Girolamo Abos, last name also given Avos or d'Avossa and baptized Geronimo Abos (16 November 1715 – May 1760), was a Maltese-Italian composer of both operas and church music.
Born in Valletta, Malta, son of Gian Tommaso Abos, whose father was a Frenchman from Castellane and Rosa Farrugia, Abos studied under Leonardo Leo and Francesco Durante in Naples. In 1756, he became Maestro al Cembalo (Director of Music) at the Italian Theatre in London. In 1758 he returned to Italy as a teacher at the Conservatorio della Pietà de' Turchini in Naples, where Giovanni Paisiello was one of his pupils . He wrote fourteen operas for the opera houses in Naples, Rome, and London, of which Tito Manlio (Naples, 1751) was the most successful. After 1758 he composed a good deal of church music, including seven masses and several litanies. He died in Naples. Many of his sacred works, oratorios, and the opera Pelopida have been edited by the Australian musicologist and conductor Richard Divall, and are freely available.
List of operas composed by Abos TitleGenreSubdivisionsLibrettoPremière datePlace, theatre Le due zingare simili opera buffa Antonio Palomba 1742 Naples, Teatro Nuovo Il geloso commedia Antonio Palomba spring 1743 Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini Le furberie di Spilletto commedia per musica 3 acts (Première libretto, in Italian) Carnival 1744 Florence, Teatro del Cocomero La serva padrona opera buffa Gennaro Antonio Federico Carnival 1744 Naples La moglie gelosa commedia Antonio Palomba 1745 Naples, Teatro dei Fiorentini Adriano in Siria dramma per musica Pietro Metastasio Carnival 1746 Florence, Teatro della Pergola Artaserse dramma per musica 3 acts Pietro Metastasio(Première libretto, in Italian) 1746 Venice, Teatro di San Giovanni Crisostomo) Pelopida dramma per musica 3 acts Gaetano Roccaforte(Première libretto, in Italian) Carnival 1747 Rome, Teatro Argentina Alessandro nelle Indie dramma per musica 3 acts Pietro Metastasio(Première libretto, in Italian) July 1747 Ancona, Teatro La Fenice Arianna e Teseo dramma per musica 3 acts Pietro Pariati(Première libretto, in Italian) 26 December 1748 Rome, Teatro delle Dame Tito Manlio dramma per musica Gaetano Roccaforte 30 May 1751 Naples, Teatro San Carlo Erifile dramma per musica 3 acts Giovanni Battista Neri(Première libretto, in Italian) Carnival 1752 Rome, Teatro delle Dame Lucio Vero o sia Il Vologeso opera seria Apostolo Zeno 18 December 1752 Naples, Teatro San Carlo Il Medo dramma per musica Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni 1753 Turin, Teatro Regio
References Stabat Mater Gerolamo Abos ed. Joseph Vella Bondin Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era, 68, A-R Editions, Inc., Middleton, Wisconsin 2003, .
Hanns-Bertold Dietz, Joseph Vella Bondin, "Abos, Girolamo ", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001). .
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