Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747) is best known for his rivalry with Handel. He was called to London by the Duke of Marlborough in 1720 to form a second opera company, an undertaking which for a time posed a serious threat to Handel's own undertakings, both artistically and particularly financially. Before that, Bononcini had been in Vienna ( 1698-1711 ), a city where his path finally led him again, ten years before his death.

Bononcini’s origins are in the Bologna school. Thus the opera composer began as a composer of instrumental music. His father, Giovanni Maria (1642-1678), was a well-known church musician in Bologna and Modena. He also had a brother, Antonio Maria (1677-1726), who like him was a composer and who also was active in Vienna, from 1704 to 1711. Giovanni studied with his father and with Giovanni Paolo Colonna (1637-1695), maestro di cappella at the Basilica di S. Petronio in Bologna starting in 1674.