(Pi-et’-tro Met-ta-shta-syo) 1698–1782 Italian librettist and poet Metastasio was the leading Italian librettist of his era, and creator of the tradition of a particular kind of serious opera. He was born in Rome, worked initially there and in Venice, and settled in Vienna in 1730 as poet to the imperial Habsburg court. He wrote numerous texts for music, ...
1698–1782, Italian The Italian poet Metastasio wrote 27 large-scale opera libretti, some of which were set to music up to 100 times. He created a genre of opera – Metastasian opera – that not only bore his name, but set new patterns for libretti during the 50 years he spent in Vienna. Invited to the imperial court in ...
‘Titus’ Clemency’ Premiered in Prague on 6 September 1791, Mozart’s last opera is based on an old Metastasio libretto, updated (with added ensembles and choruses) for contemporary taste. Popular in the early nineteenth century, it then went into eclipse. Nowadays, though, La clemenza di Tito is valued on its own terms rather than as a pale ...
made his debut in Munich in 1736. There followed performances in Italy in 1739, Bonn and Frankfurt in 1742 and in Vienna in 1749, where, according to Metastasio, he ‘sang like an angel’. Raaff went on to perform in Madrid in 1755 and Naples in 1759. In 1770, he entered the service of Carl Theodor, ...
c. 1670–1736, Italian Caldara was probably taught by Giovanni Legrenzi (1626–90) and was a choirboy at St Mark’s in Venice. His earliest operas were composed for Venice, while he was working as a cellist at St Mark’s. He was appointed maestro di cappella at Mantua to the last Gonzaga duke until about 1707, and then worked at Rome ...
set his libretti to music. Scarlatti and Handel both set versions of Zeno’s libretti that were adapted for them by other authors. Zeno was a major influence on the young Metastasio, who in turn supplanted his predecessor as both court poet in Vienna and the most respected librettist of his generation. Introduction | Late Baroque | Opera Personalities | Johann ...
,’ he wrote, ‘all those abuses against which good sense and reason have long cried out in vain’. He also abandoned the complex historical and dynastic plots used by Metastasio and his followers, full of disguises and intrigues and subplots, in favour of simple, direct, classical ones, in which poetry, dance, scenery and ...
Gluck settled in Vienna in 1752. That year he composed his most boldly inventive opera seria to date, La clemenza di Tito (‘Titus’ Clemency’, 1752), to a libretto by Metastasio, which Mozart was to use nearly 40 years later. New Directions During the 1750s and early 1760s Gluck wrote, besides opera seria, celebratory works on mythological themes ...
Faustina and Cuzzoni culminated in 1727 when they came to blows on stage in a performance of Bononcini’s Astianatte. Faustina married the composer Hasse in 1730 – the librettist Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) described them as ‘truly an exquisite couple’. Faustina appeared in many of her husband’s opera seria composed for Dresden, and eventually retired in 1751. In 1773, she ...
, which are preserved today in the Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale in Bologna. Recommended Recording: Organ Works, Ennio Cominetti (MDG) Introduction | Classical Era | Classical Personalities | Pietro Metastasio | Classical Era | Classical ...
1710–36, Italian Pergolesi died at a tragically young age, but he produced a substantial corpus of works during his brief yet intense six-year career. In the 1720s he studied in Naples with teachers including Francesco Durante (1684–1755) and Vinci, but his first opera, La Salustia (1732), was a failure due to the death of the star castrato ...
(Joo-sep’-pa Tär-te’-ne) 1692–1770 Italian composer and theorist Tartini was born in Pirano and studied law at Padua, where he was appointed primo violino e capo di concerto (‘first violin and concertmaster’) at the Basilica in 1721. In 1728 he founded a school of violinists there which became known as the Scuola della Nazioni (‘School of Nations’), as it attracted students from ...
several pieces. Hasse held a post as Kapellmeister at the Italianate Dresden court, but was in constant demand elsewhere, especially in Naples, Venice and above all Vienna. Metastasio favoured him above all others who set his librettos; a graceful and polished melodist, he was called by Burney ‘the most natural, elegant, and judicious composer of ...
1660–1741, German Fux studied music at Graz, and became a talented organist and church musician. He probably travelled to Italy during the 1680s, and his a capella Masses influenced by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525–94) attracted the admiring attention of Emperor Leopold I in 1698. Based in Vienna for the remainder of his life, Fux was ...
paltry income by playing in serenade parties. As luck had it, though, he found himself living in the attic of the same house as the famous poet Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782), who introduced him to the old Italian opera composer Nicola Antonio Porpora (1686–1768). Through Porpora, Haydn claimed to have learnt ‘the true fundamentals of composition’; and certainly the ...
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