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Pietro Metastasio

Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjɛːtro metaˈstaːzjo]), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.

Pietro Metastasio
Metastasio, c. 1770 by Meytens or Batoni
BornPietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi
3 January 1698
Rome, Papal States
Died12 April 1782 (aged 84)
Vienna, Holy Roman Empire
Pen namePietro Metastasio
Occupation
  • Writer
  • poet

Early life edit

 
Opere drammatiche, oratorj sacri e poesie liriche (1737)

Metastasio was born in Rome, where his father, Felice Trapassi, a native of Assisi, had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces. Felice married a Bolognese woman, Francesca Galasti, and became a grocer in the Via dei Cappellari. The couple had two sons and two daughters; Pietro was the younger son.

Pietro, while still a child, is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject. On one such occasion in 1709, two men of distinction stopped to listen: Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy, and Lorenzini, a critic of some note. Gravina was attracted by the boy's poetic talent and personal charm, and made Pietro his protégé; in the course of a few weeks he adopted him. Felice Trapassi was glad to give his son the chance of a good education and introduction into society.

Gravina hellenized the boy's name Trapassi into Metastasio, and intended his adopted son to be a jurist like himself. He therefore made the boy learn Latin and law. At the same time he cultivated his literary gifts, and displayed the youthful prodigy both at his own house and in the Roman coteries. Metastasio soon found himself competing with the most celebrated improvvisatori of his time in Italy. However, his days full of study and evenings devoted to improvising poetry took a toll on Pietro's health.

Gravina, making a business trip to Calabria, exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples, then placed him in the care of his kinsman Gregorio Caroprese at Scaléa. In country air and the quiet of the southern seashore Metastasio's health revived. Gravina decided that he should never improvise again, but should be reserved for nobler efforts, when, having completed his education, he might enter into competition with the greatest poets.

Metastasio responded to his patron's wishes. At the age of twelve he translated the Iliad into octave stanzas; and two years later he composed a Senecan tragedy on a subject from Gian Giorgio Trissino's Italia liberata – Gravina's favourite epic. It was called Giustino, and was printed in 1713; forty-two years later, Metastasio told his publisher that he would willingly suppress this juvenilia.

Caroprese died in 1714, leaving Gravina his heir; and in 1718 Gravina also died. Metastasio inherited a fortune of 15,000 scudi. At a meeting of the Arcadian Academy, he recited an elegy to his patron, and then settled down to enjoy his wealth.

Roman fame edit

Metastasio was now twenty. During the last four years he had worn the costume of abbé, having taken the minor orders without which it was then useless to expect advancement in Rome. His romantic history, personal beauty, charming manners and distinguished talents made him fashionable. Within two years he had spent his money and increased his reputation. He decided to apply himself seriously to the work of his profession. He migrated to Naples, and entered the office of an eminent lawyer named Castagnola, who exercised severe control over his time and energies.

While slaving at the law, Metastasio in 1721 composed an epithalamium, and probably also his first musical serenade, Endimione (Endymion), on the occasion of the marriage of his patroness Donna Anna Francesca Ravaschieri Pinelli di Sangro (later 6th Principessa di Belmonte) to the Marchese Don Antonio Pignatelli (later His Serene Highness Prince of Belmonte). In 1722, while Naples was under Austrian rule, the birthday of Empress Elisabeth Christine had to be celebrated with more than ordinary honours, and the viceroy asked Metastasio to compose a serenata for the occasion. Metastasio accepted, but kept his authorship secret. He wrote "Gli orti esperidi", which was set to music by Nicola Porpora, and sung by Porpora's pupil, the castrato Farinelli, making a spectacular début, it won the most enthusiastic applause. The Roman prima donna, Marianna Bulgarelli, who played Venus in this opera, spared no pains until she had discovered its author.

Bulgarelli persuaded the poet to give up the law, and promised to secure for him fame and independence if he would devote his talents to the musical drama. In her house Metastasio became acquainted with the greatest composers of the day: Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Leonardo Vinci, Leonardo Leo, Francesco Durante, and Benedetto Marcello, all of whom would later set his plays to melody. Here too he studied the art of singing, and learned to appreciate the style of such men as Farinelli. Metastasio wrote quickly and his plays were enhanced by being set to music and sung by the greatest singers of the day.[who?].

 
Statue of Metastasio in Rome, in front of the Santa Maria in Vallicella

Metastasio lived with Bulgarelli and her husband in Rome. Moved by an affection half maternal, half romantic, and by admiration for his talent, she adopted him more passionately even than Gravina had done. She took the whole Trapassi family – father, mother, brother, sisters – into her own house. She fostered the poet's genius and pampered his caprices. Under her influence he wrote in rapid succession Didone abbandonata, Catone in Utica, Ezio, Alessandro nell' Indie, Semiramide riconosciuta, Siroe and Artaserse. These dramas were set to music by the chief composers of the day, and performed in the chief towns of Italy.

But meanwhile Bulgarelli was growing older; she had ceased to sing in public; and the poet increasingly felt his dependence upon her kindness irksome. He gained 300 scudi for each opera; this pay, though good, was precarious and he longed for some fixed engagement. In September 1729 he received the offer of the post of court poet to the theatre at Vienna, succeeding Pietro Pariati, with a stipend of 3,000 florins. This he at once accepted. Bulgarelli unselfishly sped him on his way to glory. She took charge of his family in Rome and he set off for Austria.

Vienna edit

In the early summer of 1730, Metastasio settled at Vienna in an apartment in the so-called 'Michaelerhaus'. This date marks a new period in his artistic activity. Between the years 1730 and 1740 his finest dramas, Adriano in Siria, Demetrio, Issipile, Demofoonte, Olimpiade, Clemenza di Tito, Achille in Sciro, Temistocle and Attilio Regolo, were produced for the imperial theatre. Some of them had to be composed for special occasions, with almost incredible rapidity: Achille in eighteen days, Ipermestra in nine. Poet, composer, musical copyist and singer did their work together in frantic haste. Metastasio understood the technique of his peculiar art in its minutest details. The experience gained at Naples and Rome, quickened by the excitement of his new career at Vienna, enabled him almost instinctively, and as it were by inspiration, to hit the exact mark aimed at in the opera.

The libretto Adriano in Siria was used by more than 60 other composers in the 18th and early 19th century: Antonio Caldara (1732), Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1734), Francesco Maria Veracini (1735), Baldassare Galuppi (1740), Carl Heinrich Graun (1746), Johann Adolph Hasse (1752), Johann Christian Bach (1765), Luigi Cherubini (1782) and in Adriano in Siria (Mysliveček) from 1776.

In Vienna Metastasio met with no marked social success. His plebeian birth excluded him from aristocratic circles. To make up in some measure for this comparative failure, he enjoyed the intimacy of the Countess Althann [it], sister-in-law of his old patroness the Princess Belmonte Pignatelli. She had lost her husband, and had some while occupied the post of chief favourite to the emperor. Metastasio's liaison with her became so close that it was believed they had been privately married.

Bulgarelli tired of his absence, and asked Metastasio to get her an engagement at the court theatre. He was ashamed of her and tired of her, and wrote dissuading her from the projected visit. The tone of his letters alarmed and irritated her. She seems to have set out from Rome, but died suddenly upon the road. All we know is that she left him her fortune after her husband's life interest in it had expired, and that Metastasio, overwhelmed with grief and remorse, immediately renounced the legacy. This disinterested act plunged the Bulgarelli-Metastasio household at Rome into confusion. Bulgarelli's widower married again. Metastasio's brother, Leopoldo Trapassi, and his father and sister, were thrown upon their own resources.

As time advanced, the life which Metastasio led at Vienna, together with the climate, told on his health and spirits. From about the year 1745 onward he wrote little, though the cantatas which belong to this period, and the canzonetta Ecco quel fiero istante, which he sent to his friend Farinelli, rank among the most popular of his productions. It was clear, as Vernon Lee has phrased it, that "what ailed him was mental and moral ennui". In 1755 the Countess Althann died, and Metastasio's social contacts were reduced to the gatherings round him in the bourgeois house of his friend Nicolo Martines, the secretary to the papal Nuncio in Vienna. He sank rapidly into the habits of old age; and, though he lived till the year 1782, he was very inactive. He died on 12 April,[1] bequeathing his whole fortune of some 130,000 florins to the six children of Nicolo Martines. He had survived all his Italian relatives.

Throughout the forty years of his career in Vienna, in the course of which Metastasio eventually outlived his own originality and creative powers, his fame went on increasing. In his library he counted as many as forty editions of his own works. They had been translated into French, English, German, Spanish, and modern Greek. They had been set to music over and over again by every composer of distinction. They had been sung by the best virtuosi in every capital, and there was not a literary academy of note which had not conferred on him the honour of membership. Strangers of distinction passing through Vienna made a point of paying their respects to the old poet at his lodgings at Kohlmarkt.

But his poetry was intended for a certain style of music – for the music of omnipotent vocalists, of exceedingly skilled sopranos and castrati. When the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—focusing more on psychology and less on virtuoso singing—came into vogue, a new style of libretto was needed (Mozart did use an old Metastasio libretto for his renowned opera La clemenza di Tito, but, it was substantially re-written for the purpose). The demise of castrato singing meant that Metastasio's operas dropped out of the repertory.

Metastasio's poetry is emotional, lyrical, and romantic. His chief dramatic situations are expressed by lyrics for two or three voices, embodying the several contending passions of the agents brought into conflict by the circumstances of the plot. The total result is not pure literature, but literature fit for musical effect. Language in Metastasio's hands is musical, lucid, and songlike, perhaps due to his experience as an improvisatory poet. He was an admirer of Torquato Tasso, Giambattista Marino, Giovanni Battista Guarini, and Ovid.

Composers continued to set Metastasio’s poetry to music even after his death. German composer Georgina Schubert (1840–1878) used his text for her lieder "Gondoliera".[2]

Works edit

Operas edit

The names of the first composers to set the respective texts to music are indicated next to the title [3]

Other stage works edit

  • Giustino (1712)
  • Angelica (1720) – Nicola Porpora
  • Endimione (1721)
  • Gli orti esperdi (1721)
  • La Galatea (1722)
  • La contesa de' numi (1729)
  • Il tempio dell'Eternità (1731)
  • Amor prigioniero (1732)
  • L'asilo d'Amore (1732)
  • Il palladio conservato (1735)
  • Il sogno di Scipione (1735)
  • Le cinesi (1735) – Antonio Caldara
  • Le grazie vendicate (1735)
  • Il Parnaso accusato e difeso (1738)
  • La pace fra la virtù e la bellezza (1738)
  • Astrea placata (1739)
  • Il natal di Giove (1740)
  • Il vero omaggio (1743)
  • Augurio di felicità (1749)
  • La rispettosa tenerezza (1750)
  • L'isola disabitata (1753)
  • Tributo di rispetto e d'amore (1754)
  • La gara (1755)
  • Il sogno (1756)
  • La ritrosia disarmata (1759)
  • Alcide al bivio (1760) – Johann Adolph Hasse
  • L'Atenaide (Gli affetti generosi) (1762)
  • Egeria (1764) – Johann Adolph Hasse
  • Il Parnaso confuso (1765)
  • Il trionfo d'Amore (1765)
  • La corona (1765)
  • La pace fra le tre dee (1765)
  • Partenope (1767) – Johann Adolph Hasse
  • L'ape (n.d.)

Oratorios edit

Cantatas edit

  • Il ciclope
  • La danza
  • Il quadro animato
  • Amor timido
  • Il consiglio
  • Il nido degli amor
  • Il nome
  • Il primo amore
  • Il ritorno
  • Il sogno
  • Il tabacco
  • Il trionfo della gloria
  • Irene
  • La cacciatrice
  • La cioccolata
  • La gelosia
  • La Pesca
  • La primavera
  • L'Armonica
  • La scusa
  • La tempesta
  • L'Aurora
  • L'estate
  • L'inciampo
  • L'inverno
  • Pel giorno natalizio di Francesco I
  • Pel giorno natalizio di Maria Teresa
  • Pel nome glorioso di Maria Teresa
  • Primo omaggio del canto
  • Altre cantate

Canzonettas edit

  • A Nice
  • Canzonetta
  • La libertà
  • La partenza
  • La primavera
  • L'estate
  • Palinodia

Other works edit

  • 9 complimenti
  • 33 strofe per musica
  • 32 sonetti
  • 4 poemi sacri
  • Numerosi testi per arie

References edit

Notes

  1. ^ Otto Erich Deutsch (1 June 1966). Mozart: A Documentary Biography. Stanford University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-8047-0233-1.
  2. ^ "Georgine Schubert Song Texts | LiederNet". www.lieder.net. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  3. ^ List of the works of Pietro Metastasio on publish.uwo.ca. ( The list is arranged alphabetically by title)
  4. ^ Complete libretto in Italian

Sources

  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSymonds, John Addington (1911). "Metastasio". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Aluigi, Metastasio's Life, (Assisi, 1783), London: Charles Burney, 1796, and others.
  • Maeder, Costantino (1993). Metastasio, L'olimpiade e l'opera del Settecento (in Italian). Bologna: Il Mulino. ISBN 978-88-15-04221-7. OCLC 30592360.
  • Kirkpatrick, David A. (2009), The Role of Metastasio's Libretti in the Eighteenth Century: Opera as Propaganda, VDM Verlag Dr. Müller and Florida State University, 2005. ISBN 3-639-05095-9 ISBN 978-3-639-05095-0
  • Metastasio: His works were published in numerous editions, but his personal favourites were those published under his own supervision by Calzabigi (Paris, 1755, 5 vols.). The posthumous works were printed in Vienna in 1795.
  • Neville, Don (1990). Frontier Research in Opera and Multimedia Preservation: a Project Involving the Documentation and Full Text Retrieval of the Libretti of Pietro Metastasio. London (Ontario): Faculty of Music, University of Western Ontario. Without ISBN
  • Stendhal, Vie de Haydn, Mozart et Métastase, 1817.

Further reading edit

  • Blichmann, Diana (2015). "The Temple of Jupiter Stator in La Clemenza di Tito by Pietro Metastasio". Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography. 40 (1–2): 139–156. ISSN 1522-7464.
  • Blichmann, Diana (2017). "Atlas with the Celestial Globe in the Stage Design of La clemenza di Tito as a Symbol of Historical power: The Portuguese Exploration of Brazil and the Political Propaganda at the Lisbon Court Opera in 1755". Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography. 42 (1–2): 141–159. ISSN 1522-7464.
  • Burden, Michael, "Reading Henry Tresham’s theatre curtain: Metastasio’s apotheosis, and the Idea of Opera at London’s Pantheon", in Cambridge Opera Journal, 31/1 (2019), pp. 26-62.
  • Robert Torre, "Operatic Twins & Musical Rivals: Two Settings of Artaserse (1730)", Discourses in Music, vol. 6 no. 1, (Summer 2006).

External links edit

  • Drammi of Metastasio (in Italian)
  • Pietro Metastasio: Drammi per musica (in Italian)
  • Pietro Metastasio: Poeta dell'Unità culturale europea (in Italian)
  • Metastasio's works: text, concordances and frequency list
  • "Biography: Pietre Metastasio", The Every-day Book and Table Book; or, Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs, and Events, Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Days, in Past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Months, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac, Including Accounts of the Weather, Rules for Health and Conduct, Remarkable and Important Anecdotes, Facts, and Notices, in Chronology, Antiquities, Topography, Biography, Natural History, Art, Science, and General Literature; Derived from the Most Authentic Sources, and Valuable Original Communication, with Poetical Elucidations, for Daily Use and Diversion. Vol III., ed. William Hone, (London: 1838) pp. 421–24.
  • Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pietro Metastasio" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  • Works by Pietro Metastasio at Project Gutenberg
  • Works by or about Pietro Metastasio at Internet Archive
  • Works by or about Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi at Internet Archive

pietro, metastasio, this, article, includes, list, general, references, lacks, sufficient, corresponding, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, 2016, learn, when, remove, this, template, message, pietro. This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations May 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi 3 January 1698 12 April 1782 better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio Italian pronunciation ˈpjɛːtro metaˈstaːzjo was an Italian poet and librettist considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti Pietro MetastasioMetastasio c 1770 by Meytens or BatoniBornPietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi3 January 1698Rome Papal StatesDied12 April 1782 aged 84 Vienna Holy Roman EmpirePen namePietro MetastasioOccupationWriter poet Contents 1 Early life 2 Roman fame 3 Vienna 4 Works 4 1 Operas 4 2 Other stage works 4 3 Oratorios 4 4 Cantatas 4 5 Canzonettas 4 6 Other works 5 References 6 Further reading 7 External linksEarly life edit nbsp Opere drammatiche oratorj sacri e poesie liriche 1737 Metastasio was born in Rome where his father Felice Trapassi a native of Assisi had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces Felice married a Bolognese woman Francesca Galasti and became a grocer in the Via dei Cappellari The couple had two sons and two daughters Pietro was the younger son Pietro while still a child is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject On one such occasion in 1709 two men of distinction stopped to listen Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy and Lorenzini a critic of some note Gravina was attracted by the boy s poetic talent and personal charm and made Pietro his protege in the course of a few weeks he adopted him Felice Trapassi was glad to give his son the chance of a good education and introduction into society Gravina hellenized the boy s name Trapassi into Metastasio and intended his adopted son to be a jurist like himself He therefore made the boy learn Latin and law At the same time he cultivated his literary gifts and displayed the youthful prodigy both at his own house and in the Roman coteries Metastasio soon found himself competing with the most celebrated improvvisatori of his time in Italy However his days full of study and evenings devoted to improvising poetry took a toll on Pietro s health Gravina making a business trip to Calabria exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples then placed him in the care of his kinsman Gregorio Caroprese at Scalea In country air and the quiet of the southern seashore Metastasio s health revived Gravina decided that he should never improvise again but should be reserved for nobler efforts when having completed his education he might enter into competition with the greatest poets Metastasio responded to his patron s wishes At the age of twelve he translated the Iliad into octave stanzas and two years later he composed a Senecan tragedy on a subject from Gian Giorgio Trissino s Italia liberata Gravina s favourite epic It was called Giustino and was printed in 1713 forty two years later Metastasio told his publisher that he would willingly suppress this juvenilia Caroprese died in 1714 leaving Gravina his heir and in 1718 Gravina also died Metastasio inherited a fortune of 15 000 scudi At a meeting of the Arcadian Academy he recited an elegy to his patron and then settled down to enjoy his wealth Roman fame editMetastasio was now twenty During the last four years he had worn the costume of abbe having taken the minor orders without which it was then useless to expect advancement in Rome His romantic history personal beauty charming manners and distinguished talents made him fashionable Within two years he had spent his money and increased his reputation He decided to apply himself seriously to the work of his profession He migrated to Naples and entered the office of an eminent lawyer named Castagnola who exercised severe control over his time and energies While slaving at the law Metastasio in 1721 composed an epithalamium and probably also his first musical serenade Endimione Endymion on the occasion of the marriage of his patroness Donna Anna Francesca Ravaschieri Pinelli di Sangro later 6th Principessa di Belmonte to the Marchese Don Antonio Pignatelli later His Serene Highness Prince of Belmonte In 1722 while Naples was under Austrian rule the birthday of Empress Elisabeth Christine had to be celebrated with more than ordinary honours and the viceroy asked Metastasio to compose a serenata for the occasion Metastasio accepted but kept his authorship secret He wrote Gli orti esperidi which was set to music by Nicola Porpora and sung by Porpora s pupil the castrato Farinelli making a spectacular debut it won the most enthusiastic applause The Roman prima donna Marianna Bulgarelli who played Venus in this opera spared no pains until she had discovered its author Bulgarelli persuaded the poet to give up the law and promised to secure for him fame and independence if he would devote his talents to the musical drama In her house Metastasio became acquainted with the greatest composers of the day Johann Adolph Hasse Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Alessandro Scarlatti Leonardo Vinci Leonardo Leo Francesco Durante and Benedetto Marcello all of whom would later set his plays to melody Here too he studied the art of singing and learned to appreciate the style of such men as Farinelli Metastasio wrote quickly and his plays were enhanced by being set to music and sung by the greatest singers of the day who nbsp Statue of Metastasio in Rome in front of the Santa Maria in VallicellaMetastasio lived with Bulgarelli and her husband in Rome Moved by an affection half maternal half romantic and by admiration for his talent she adopted him more passionately even than Gravina had done She took the whole Trapassi family father mother brother sisters into her own house She fostered the poet s genius and pampered his caprices Under her influence he wrote in rapid succession Didone abbandonata Catone in Utica Ezio Alessandro nell Indie Semiramide riconosciuta Siroe and Artaserse These dramas were set to music by the chief composers of the day and performed in the chief towns of Italy But meanwhile Bulgarelli was growing older she had ceased to sing in public and the poet increasingly felt his dependence upon her kindness irksome He gained 300 scudi for each opera this pay though good was precarious and he longed for some fixed engagement In September 1729 he received the offer of the post of court poet to the theatre at Vienna succeeding Pietro Pariati with a stipend of 3 000 florins This he at once accepted Bulgarelli unselfishly sped him on his way to glory She took charge of his family in Rome and he set off for Austria Vienna editIn the early summer of 1730 Metastasio settled at Vienna in an apartment in the so called Michaelerhaus This date marks a new period in his artistic activity Between the years 1730 and 1740 his finest dramas Adriano in Siria Demetrio Issipile Demofoonte Olimpiade Clemenza di Tito Achille in Sciro Temistocle and Attilio Regolo were produced for the imperial theatre Some of them had to be composed for special occasions with almost incredible rapidity Achille in eighteen days Ipermestra in nine Poet composer musical copyist and singer did their work together in frantic haste Metastasio understood the technique of his peculiar art in its minutest details The experience gained at Naples and Rome quickened by the excitement of his new career at Vienna enabled him almost instinctively and as it were by inspiration to hit the exact mark aimed at in the opera The libretto Adriano in Siria was used by more than 60 other composers in the 18th and early 19th century Antonio Caldara 1732 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi 1734 Francesco Maria Veracini 1735 Baldassare Galuppi 1740 Carl Heinrich Graun 1746 Johann Adolph Hasse 1752 Johann Christian Bach 1765 Luigi Cherubini 1782 and in Adriano in Siria Myslivecek from 1776 In Vienna Metastasio met with no marked social success His plebeian birth excluded him from aristocratic circles To make up in some measure for this comparative failure he enjoyed the intimacy of the Countess Althann it sister in law of his old patroness the Princess Belmonte Pignatelli She had lost her husband and had some while occupied the post of chief favourite to the emperor Metastasio s liaison with her became so close that it was believed they had been privately married Bulgarelli tired of his absence and asked Metastasio to get her an engagement at the court theatre He was ashamed of her and tired of her and wrote dissuading her from the projected visit The tone of his letters alarmed and irritated her She seems to have set out from Rome but died suddenly upon the road All we know is that she left him her fortune after her husband s life interest in it had expired and that Metastasio overwhelmed with grief and remorse immediately renounced the legacy This disinterested act plunged the Bulgarelli Metastasio household at Rome into confusion Bulgarelli s widower married again Metastasio s brother Leopoldo Trapassi and his father and sister were thrown upon their own resources As time advanced the life which Metastasio led at Vienna together with the climate told on his health and spirits From about the year 1745 onward he wrote little though the cantatas which belong to this period and the canzonetta Ecco quel fiero istante which he sent to his friend Farinelli rank among the most popular of his productions It was clear as Vernon Lee has phrased it that what ailed him was mental and moral ennui In 1755 the Countess Althann died and Metastasio s social contacts were reduced to the gatherings round him in the bourgeois house of his friend Nicolo Martines the secretary to the papal Nuncio in Vienna He sank rapidly into the habits of old age and though he lived till the year 1782 he was very inactive He died on 12 April 1 bequeathing his whole fortune of some 130 000 florins to the six children of Nicolo Martines He had survived all his Italian relatives Throughout the forty years of his career in Vienna in the course of which Metastasio eventually outlived his own originality and creative powers his fame went on increasing In his library he counted as many as forty editions of his own works They had been translated into French English German Spanish and modern Greek They had been set to music over and over again by every composer of distinction They had been sung by the best virtuosi in every capital and there was not a literary academy of note which had not conferred on him the honour of membership Strangers of distinction passing through Vienna made a point of paying their respects to the old poet at his lodgings at Kohlmarkt But his poetry was intended for a certain style of music for the music of omnipotent vocalists of exceedingly skilled sopranos and castrati When the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart focusing more on psychology and less on virtuoso singing came into vogue a new style of libretto was needed Mozart did use an old Metastasio libretto for his renowned opera La clemenza di Tito but it was substantially re written for the purpose The demise of castrato singing meant that Metastasio s operas dropped out of the repertory Metastasio s poetry is emotional lyrical and romantic His chief dramatic situations are expressed by lyrics for two or three voices embodying the several contending passions of the agents brought into conflict by the circumstances of the plot The total result is not pure literature but literature fit for musical effect Language in Metastasio s hands is musical lucid and songlike perhaps due to his experience as an improvisatory poet He was an admirer of Torquato Tasso Giambattista Marino Giovanni Battista Guarini and Ovid Composers continued to set Metastasio s poetry to music even after his death German composer Georgina Schubert 1840 1878 used his text for her lieder Gondoliera 2 Works editOperas edit The names of the first composers to set the respective texts to music are indicated next to the title 3 Siface re di Numidia 1723 Francesco Feo Didone abbandonata 4 1724 Domenico Sarro L impresario delle Isole Canarie 1724 Domenico Sarro Siroe re di Persia 1726 Leonardo Vinci Catone in Utica 1728 Leonardo Vinci Ezio 1728 Pietro Auletta Alessandro nell Indie 1729 Leonardo Vinci Semiramide riconosciuta 1729 Leonardo Vinci Artaserse 1730 Leonardo Vinci Demetrio 1731 Antonio Caldara Adriano in Siria 1732 Antonio Caldara Issipile 1732 Francesco Conti Demofoonte 1733 Antonio Caldara L Olimpiade 1733 Antonio Caldara La clemenza di Tito 1734 Antonio Caldara Achille in Sciro 1736 Antonio Caldara Ciro riconosciuto 1736 Antonio Caldara Temistocle 1736 Antonio Caldara Zenobia 1740 Luca Antonio Predieri Antigono 1743 Johann Adolph Hasse Ipermestra 1744 Johann Adolph Hasse Attilio Regolo 1750 Johann Adolph Hasse Il re pastore 1751 Giuseppe Bonno L eroe cinese 1752 Giuseppe Bonno Nitteti 1756 Nicola Conforto Il trionfo di Clelia 1762 Johann Adolph Hasse Romolo ed Ersilia 1765 Johann Adolph Hasse Ruggiero 1771 Johann Adolph Hasse Other stage works edit Giustino 1712 Angelica 1720 Nicola Porpora Endimione 1721 Gli orti esperdi 1721 La Galatea 1722 La contesa de numi 1729 Il tempio dell Eternita 1731 Amor prigioniero 1732 L asilo d Amore 1732 Il palladio conservato 1735 Il sogno di Scipione 1735 Le cinesi 1735 Antonio Caldara Le grazie vendicate 1735 Il Parnaso accusato e difeso 1738 La pace fra la virtu e la bellezza 1738 Astrea placata 1739 Il natal di Giove 1740 Il vero omaggio 1743 Augurio di felicita 1749 La rispettosa tenerezza 1750 L isola disabitata 1753 Tributo di rispetto e d amore 1754 La gara 1755 Il sogno 1756 La ritrosia disarmata 1759 Alcide al bivio 1760 Johann Adolph Hasse L Atenaide Gli affetti generosi 1762 Egeria 1764 Johann Adolph Hasse Il Parnaso confuso 1765 Il trionfo d Amore 1765 La corona 1765 La pace fra le tre dee 1765 Partenope 1767 Johann Adolph Hasse L ape n d Oratorios edit Per la festivita del santo natale 1727 La passione di Gesu Cristo 1730 Antonio Caldara Sant Elena al Calvario 1731 Leonardo Leo La morte d Abel 1732 Antonio Caldara Giuseppe riconosciuto 1733 Betulia liberata 1734 Johann Georg Reutter Gioas re di Giuda 1735 Johann Georg Reutter Isacco figura del Redentore 1740 Cantatas edit Il ciclope La danza Il quadro animato Amor timido Il consiglio Il nido degli amor Il nome Il primo amore Il ritorno Il sogno Il tabacco Il trionfo della gloria Irene La cacciatrice La cioccolata La gelosia La Pesca La primavera L Armonica La scusa La tempesta L Aurora L estate L inciampo L inverno Pel giorno natalizio di Francesco I Pel giorno natalizio di Maria Teresa Pel nome glorioso di Maria Teresa Primo omaggio del canto Altre cantate Canzonettas edit A Nice Canzonetta La liberta La partenza La primavera L estate Palinodia Other works edit 9 complimenti 33 strofe per musica 32 sonetti 4 poemi sacri Numerosi testi per arieReferences editNotes Otto Erich Deutsch 1 June 1966 Mozart A Documentary Biography Stanford University Press p 199 ISBN 978 0 8047 0233 1 Georgine Schubert Song Texts LiederNet www lieder net Retrieved 30 January 2023 List of the works of Pietro Metastasio on publish uwo ca The list is arranged alphabetically by title Complete libretto in Italian Sources nbsp This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Symonds John Addington 1911 Metastasio In Chisholm Hugh ed Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed Cambridge University Press Aluigi Metastasio s Life Assisi 1783 London Charles Burney 1796 and others Maeder Costantino 1993 Metastasio L olimpiade e l opera del Settecento in Italian Bologna Il Mulino ISBN 978 88 15 04221 7 OCLC 30592360 Kirkpatrick David A 2009 The Role of Metastasio s Libretti in the Eighteenth Century Opera as Propaganda VDM Verlag Dr Muller and Electronic Theses Treatises and Dissertations Paper 2883 Florida State University 2005 ISBN 3 639 05095 9 ISBN 978 3 639 05095 0 Metastasio His works were published in numerous editions but his personal favourites were those published under his own supervision by Calzabigi Paris 1755 5 vols The posthumous works were printed in Vienna in 1795 Neville Don 1990 Frontier Research in Opera and Multimedia Preservation a Project Involving the Documentation and Full Text Retrieval of the Libretti of Pietro Metastasio London Ontario Faculty of Music University of Western Ontario Without ISBN Stendhal Vie de Haydn Mozart et Metastase 1817 Further reading edit nbsp Opera portalBlichmann Diana 2015 The Temple of Jupiter Stator in La Clemenza di Tito by Pietro Metastasio Music in Art International Journal for Music Iconography 40 1 2 139 156 ISSN 1522 7464 Blichmann Diana 2017 Atlas with the Celestial Globe in the Stage Design of La clemenza di Tito as a Symbol of Historical power The Portuguese Exploration of Brazil and the Political Propaganda at the Lisbon Court Opera in 1755 Music in Art International Journal for Music Iconography 42 1 2 141 159 ISSN 1522 7464 Burden Michael Reading Henry Tresham s theatre curtain Metastasio s apotheosis and the Idea of Opera at London s Pantheon in Cambridge Opera Journal 31 1 2019 pp 26 62 Robert Torre Operatic Twins amp Musical Rivals Two Settings of Artaserse 1730 Discourses in Music vol 6 no 1 Summer 2006 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pietro Metastasio nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Pietro Metastasio Drammi of Metastasio in Italian Pietro Metastasio Drammi per musica in Italian Handbook for Metastasio Research Pietro Metastasio Poeta dell Unita culturale europea in Italian Metastasio s works text concordances and frequency list Biography Pietre Metastasio The Every day Book and Table Book or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements Sports Pastimes Ceremonies Manners Customs and Events Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days in Past and Present Times Forming a Complete History of the Year Months and Seasons and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac Including Accounts of the Weather Rules for Health and Conduct Remarkable and Important Anecdotes Facts and Notices in Chronology Antiquities Topography Biography Natural History Art Science and General Literature Derived from the Most Authentic Sources and Valuable Original Communication with Poetical Elucidations for Daily Use and Diversion Vol III ed William Hone London 1838 pp 421 24 Article Torre Robert Operatic Twins and Musical Rivals Two Settings of Artaserse 1730 Discourses in Music Volume 6 Number 1 Summer 2006 Herbermann Charles ed 1913 Pietro Metastasio Catholic Encyclopedia New York Robert Appleton Company Works by Pietro Metastasio at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Pietro Metastasio at Internet Archive Works by or about Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi at Internet Archive Portals nbsp Classical music nbsp Literature nbsp Opera nbsp Biography nbsp Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Pietro Metastasio amp oldid 1177056982, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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