Girolamo Abos

Who was Girolamo Abos?

Girolamo Abos, last name also given Avos or d'Avossa and baptized Geronimo Abos, 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 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 14 operas for the opera houses in Naples, Rome, and London, of which Tito Manlio was the most successful. After 1758 he composed a good deal of church music, including seven masses and several litanies. He died in Naples.