Maria Margherita Grimani

Who is Maria Margherita Grimani?

Maria Margherita Grimani was an Italian composer who, at some points in her life, was active in Vienna. Very little else about her is known. Among her compositions was the first opera by a woman to be performed at the Vienna court theater. She may have lived at the noble court for periods between 1713 and 1718; however, she was not employed at the court as a musician. She may also have been one of a number of women composers at the Viennese court who were canonesses, a type of Augustinian nun; others included Caterina Benedicta Grazianini, Maria de Raschenau, and Camilla de Rossi.

Grimani's known works include an opera, specifically a componimento dramatico or opus dramaticum, which may or may not have been staged, Pallade e Marte, dedicated in Bologna on April 5, 1713 and first performed at the imperial theater on the nameday of Emperor Charles VI on November 4, 1713 at the imperial theater. It was scored for two voices, oboe and string orchestra.

Her oratorios were also performed at the imperial theater: La visitazione di Elisabetta, performed in 1713 and again in 1718, and La decollazione di S Giovanni Battista, performed in 1715. The librettists are unknown.