Born in Venice, Dragonetti stayed there, playing in the orchestra at San Marco until he moved to London at age 21 and settled there.
Dragonetti had no family, though he kept a collection of life-sized cloth mannequins, with which he traveled often; he brought them to his concerts and had them placed in front row seats of theaters. He introduced one of these as his wife (one shudders at the implications of this piece of eccentricity). His closest companion for several years was his dog Carlo, who would sleep under his stool during performances, sometimes awakening to howl during tenor solos.
He was a friend of Haydn and Beethoven. He played one of Beethoven's cello sonatas, transposed for double bass, with the composer on piano.
Dragonetti's style was extremely powerful. Legend has it that one night, while staying at a hotel, he came out on to the balcony in the middle of the night and played his bass with extreme force. The next morning, the people who spent the night there the previous night were heard asking other customers if they had "heard the storm".
To this day, the mastering of the Beethoven double bass symphonic parts are considered a basic standard for all orchestral double bass players. In part we can attribute this to Dragonetti's friendship with Beethoven.
Dragonetti's Bass
Dragonetti speculated widely in basses - the major source of his considerable wealth was through the sale of fine instruments. There are various stories of how Dragonetti came into possession of the famous Gasparo da Salo bass. The fascinating and highly commendable biography Domenico Dragonetti In England by Fiona M. Palmer (Clarendon Press Oxford 1997) seems to offer the most plausible account. Because of Dragonetti's unprecedented virtuosity as a soloist, attractive offers of work were made from both London and Moscow. As remuneration for renouncing the offers and remaining as principal bassist with the orchestra of the Ducal Chapel of St Mark's in Venice (an orchestra of considerable importance), a decree made in 1791 gave Dragonetti a financial gratuity.
Similarly, it is reputed that Dragonetti was presented with an instrument made by Gasparo da Salo (1542-1609) by the Benedictine nuns who occupied St Peter's monastery in Vicenza where Dragonetti lived and played in the Grand Opera. In the Palmer biography, a footnote refers to a 1906 account by C. P. A. Berenzi, who suggests that the instrument may have been made for the monks of St Peter's, Vicenza, by Gasparo da Salo, and acquired by the procurators of St Mark's to entice Dragonetti to remain in their employ.
Today, the bass is on display in an upper room in San Marco, Venice, where it was sent after his death, as Dragonetti had wished. It stands in a cabinet between a narwhal tusk and an antique Turkish crossbow. No one, not even a renowned bass scholar, is allowed to touch it; Bottesini himself once asked if he could sample its power and was refused. For 150 years, this fine bass has stood as a museum curiosity, tucked away where the only people who will see it are those who know to ask chapel personnel, "Dov'e il contrabasso?" This is perhaps a fitting end to Dragonetti's enigmatic legacy.