Antonia Bembo

Antonia Bembo (ca. 1640 – ca. 1720) was an Italian composer and singer. She was born in Venice and died in Paris. She was the daughter of Giacomo Padoani, a doctor, and married Lorenzo Bembo in 1659. She moved to Paris before 1676, possibly to leave a bad marriage. There she sang for Louis XIV. Louis granted her a pension and housing at Petite Union Chrétienne des Dames de Saint Chaumont, a religious community. She was a contemporary of Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre. Six volumes of Bembo's music survive in manuscript at the Bibliothèque nationale de France as the Produzioni armoniche, most of them dedicated to Louis XIV. These contain a certain amount of autobiographical information, which has been corroborated through other sources....