Search results for "Pietro Metastasio"
showing 8 items of 8 documents
Sulle tracce di Oranzebe. «L’opera seria» di Calzabigi e Gassmann (Vienna, 1769)
2016
“L’opera seria” by Ranieri Calzabigi and Florian Leopold Gassmann, performed for the first time in Vienna in 1769, is one of the most fascinating and complex meta-operas of the eighteenth century. As many similar works, it satirizes the eccentric figures involved in any theatrical production (poet, composer, impresario, singers, dancers and so on). The dramaturgical construction meticolously planned by Calzabigi includes two different layers: the comic action actually staged, and the serious opera “L’Oranzebe”, which is imagined to be reharsed and later performed by the characters of the comedy. The continuous exchange between these two dimensions is the main object of the article. By colle…
Metastasio sul letto di Procuste. A proposito di due sonetti per nozze
2021
Metastasio wrote a limited number of sonnets, and in various letters expressed deep perplexities about the value and the efficacy of this poetic form. A recent edition of his “Poesie”, edited by Rosa Necchi in 2009, offers the twenty-nine texts approved by the author as well as six more ones discovered from the end of the Eighteenth Century up to recent times. The article adds to this corpus two forgotten sonnets included in epithalamic anthologies printed in Naples in 1717 and in Rome in 1722 respectively, and illustrates their unexpected subsequent re-uses.
Appunti sui libretti per musica di Gioacchino Pizzi
2017
In recent years historians of the literature, culture and sociality of the academies have shown a renewed interest in Gioacchino Pizzi (Nivildo Amarinzio), who was the Custode of Arcadia from 1772 to 1790. On the other hand, there have been no specific studies of his relations with the world of music. The first part of the article offers a first inventory of Nivildo’s printed libretti, belonging to the genres of encomiastic cantata, sacred composition and dramma per musica. The second part illustrates the ideas on Italian and French theatre expounded by Pizzi in his "Ragionamento sulla tragica e comica poesia" (1772). It also reconstructs his relationship with Pietro Metastasio, and explore…
Sulla fortuna di «Misero pargoletto»: materiali e ipotesi
2020
The aria "Misero pargoletto", sung by Timante in the third act of Pietro Metastasio's "Demofoonte", enjoyed exceptional fortune throughout the eighteenth century. The text was set tu music dozens of times not only as part of the opera it belongs to, but also as an independent piece. This essay discusses the judgements expressed on "Misero pargoletto" by several men of letters and theorists, examines some buffo parodies of the aria that demonstrate its wide notoriety, and formulates some hypotheses about the reasons for such a great success, which can be partially justified by the new conception of fatherood that emerged in the so-called Age of Sensibility.
Calzabigi e Metastasio: Napoli, Parigi, Vienna e ritorno
2020
The relationship between Ranieri Calzabigi and Pietro Metastasio has been examined several times by historians of music and literature. According to some scholars, Calzabigi’s judgment on his older colleague remained consistent over time, while others have highlighted the profound difference between the ideas expressed in the "Dissertazione [...] su le poesie drammatiche del signor abate Pietro Metastasio" (1755) and those contained in the "Risposta di Santigliano" (1790). This essay retraces the stages of the complex bond between the two authors and, with the help of new observations as well as sources hitherto neglected, demonstrates that Calzabigi was influenced by Metastasio's verses in…
I viaggi di Orfeo. Musiche e musicisti intorno a Ranieri Calzabigi
2012
Il volume raccoglie (e largamente rielabora) sei saggi dedicati ad altrettanti momenti della vita e dell'attività di Ranieri Calzabigi (1714-1795), figura centralissima della storia operistica settecentesca. In particolare vengono ricostruiti in dettaglio il primo e il secondo soggiorno napoletano (capitoli I e IV), che si collocano agli estremi della parabola esistenziale e professionale del librettista di Gluck. Il secondo capitolo lumeggia il suo coinvolgimento nella genesi e nella metamorfosi dell'«Ifigenia in Tauride» di Coltellini e Traetta per Vienna (1763). Il terzo e il quinto sono invece dedicati a due creazioni specifiche, il componimento drammatico «Comala», intonato da Pietro M…
Elogio del Jommelli
2022
Saverio Mattei (1742-1795) had a multifaceted personality. Born in Calabria but educated in Naples, he devoted himself to law and held important administrative positions. At the same time, he cultivated numerous cultural interests with inexhaustible enthusiasm: he was a translator of biblical psalms, a theorist of classical and modern dramaturgy, an author and reviser of librettos, a correspondent of Pietro Metastasio and the founder of the music library of the Conservatorio della Pietà de’ Turchini. His "Elogio del Jommelli o sia Il progresso della poesia e della musica teatrale" was printed for the first time in 1784 and published again one year later with a few but interesting variants. …
Felicità (e infelicità) sulle scene musicali tardosettecentesche: «La clemenza di Tito» di Mozart e «Nina o sia La pazza per amore» di Paisiello
2012
Nelle pagine che seguono rinuncerò a seguire le sorti della felicità-parola, che si prolungano senza soluzione di continuità fino alla moderna musica di consumo, e mi limiterò a qualche osservazione sulla felicità-concetto attraverso l’esame – necessariamente sommario – di una coppia di opere della fine del XVIII secolo, selezionate tra le tante meritevoli d’attenzione: La clemenza di Tito di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1791) e Nina o sia La pazza per amore di Giovanni Paisiello (1789-1790).