From street entertainer to leading libretto writer
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Pietro Metastasio became Europe's most celebrated librettist |
Pietro Metastasio, who became Europe’s most celebrated
opera librettist in the 18th century, was born on this day in 1698 in Rome.
He was christened Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, one of
four children born to Felice Trapassi, from Assisi and Francesca Galasti from
Bologna. His father served in the papal forces before becoming a grocer in Via
dei Cappellari.
While still a child, Pietro could attract crowds by reciting
impromptu verses. On one occasion, in 1709, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, director
of the Arcadian Academy, stopped to listen. He was so impressed that he made
the young boy his protégé and later adopted him, changing his surname to
Metastasio.
He provided the young Metastasio with a good education and
encouraged him to develop his talent.
When Gravina was on his way to Calabria on a business trip,
he exhibited Metastasio in the literary circles of Naples, but after the young
boy became ill, he placed him in the care of a relative to help him recuperate.
Gravina decided Metastasio should never improvise again but
should concentrate on his education and reserve his talent for nobler efforts.
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The title page of Metastasio's libretto Glo orti esperidi |
At the age of 12, Metastasio translated the Iliad into
octave stanzas and two years later he composed a tragedy based on Gravina’s
favourite epic poem.
After Gravina died, Metastasio inherited his fortune. He
recited an elegy to his patron at a meeting of the Arcadian Society in Rome.
But within two years he had spent all his money and he
decided to become a lawyer in Naples.
While working in a lawyer’s office he composed a poem for
Donna Anna Francesca Ravaschieri Pinelli di Sangro on the occasion of her
marriage to the Marchese Don Antonio Pignatelli.
In 1722, while Naples was under Austrian rule, he was asked
to compose a serenata to mark the birthday of Empress Elisabeth Christine. He
wrote Gli orti esperidi, which was set to music by Nicola Porpora and featured
Porpora’s pupil, the castrato Farinelli.
Marianna Bulgarelli, who played Venus in the opera,
persuaded Metastasio to give up law and promised him fame and financial
independence.
In her house he met the great composers of the day, such as
Scarlatti and Pergolesi, who later set his plays to music. Bulgarelli adopted
him, along with the whole Trapassi family, who came to live with them.
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The monument in Metastasio in Rome's Piazza della Chiesa Nuova |
Metastasio wrote a string of dramas, earning a reasonable
sum of money for each work, but he always longed for a fixed income.
When he was offered the post of court poet in Vienna he
accepted willingly and set off at once, leaving his family in Bulgarelli’s
devoted care.
Between the years 1730 and 1740 he wrote some of his finest
dramas for the imperial theatre.
The libretto for Adriano in Siria was used by more than 60
composers during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
From about 1745 his output began to decline, although some
of the cantatas he wrote at that time were later to become very popular.
His works were translated into French, English, German,
Spanish and modern Greek and set to music over and over again by the top
composers.
Metastasio died in 1782, while still in Vienna , at the age
of 84.
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The Palazzo Farnese is now used for the French Embassy |
Travel tip:
The Arcadian Society in Rome used to meet at Palazzo
Farnese, the home of the former Queen of Sweden. Queen Christina had abdicated
from her throne, converted to Roman Catholicism and moved to Rome, where she
became a cultural leader and the protector of artists, musicians and writers.
She was allowed to lodge in Palazzo Farnese, an important renaissance building,
by Pope Alexander VII. The palace, in
Piazza Farnese in the Campo dè Fiori area of Rome is now used as the French
Embassy.
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The Teatro San Bartolomeo |
Travel tip:
Metastasio’s libretto for the opera Didone abbandonato, with
music by the composer Domenico Sarro, was first heard at the Teatro San
Bartolomeo in Naples in 1724. Teatro San Bartolomeo closed in 1737 when the
newly-built Teatro San Carlo replaced it as the royal opera house in Naples .
It was demolished to make way for the Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, but
remnants of the old theatre’s boxes can still be seen in the church, which is
in vico Graziella al Porto, behind the Church of the Pietà dei Turchini,
accessible through narrow alleys from Via Medina in the San Giuseppe Carità
district.
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