Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.
Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as something of a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte.
L'Olimpiade is an opera libretto in three acts by Metastasio originally written for an operatic setting by Antonio Caldara of 1733. Metastasio’s plot vaguely draws upon the narrative of "The Trial of the Suitors" provided from Book 6 of The Histories of Herodotus, which had previously been the base for Apostolo Zeno's libretto Gli inganni felici (1695). The story, set in Ancient Greece at the time of the Olympic Games, is about amorous rivalry and characters' taking places to gain the loved one. The story ends with the announcement of two marriages.
Egidio Romualdo Duni was an Italian composer who studied in Naples and worked in Italy, France and London, writing both Italian and French operas.
Lo frate 'nnamorato is a three-act commedia per musica by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, to a Neapolitan libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, first performed in 1732.
L'Olimpiade is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The opera uses an Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio that was originally written for Antonio Caldara's 1733 opera of the same name. Vivaldi's version premiered in Venice at the Teatro Sant'Angelo on 17 February 1734. The same libretto was to be later set to music by over 50 other composers, including Giovanni Battista Pergolesi in 1735.
Didone abbandonata is an opera in three acts composed by Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio of the same name which was based on the story of Dido and Aeneas from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid. The opera premiered on 1 February 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples.
Gaetano Monti was an Italian composer. His name is first recorded in 1758, when he was eight years old, singing in a small part in a performance of Il curioso del suo proprio danno by Niccolò Piccinni. His first opera, Adriano in Siria, was performed in Modena in 1775, and he was later named organist of the Treasury Chapel at Naples Cathedral; there he remained until 1788. Moreover, in 1776 he became an impresario at the Teatro San Carlo. Most of his works were opere buffe, and were seen in theatres in Rome, Venice, and Naples. His most popular works were Le donne vendicate and Lo studente. It was believed at one time that he was the brother of the poet Vincenzo Monti, but this is uncertain.
Antonio Maria Mazzoni was an Italian composer.
Adrien (Hadrian) is an opera by the French composer Étienne Méhul. The libretto, by François-Benoît Hoffman, is closely based on Metastasio's Adriano in Siria. Written in 1791 and intended for performance at the Paris Opéra in 1792, the work was caught up in the turbulent political climate of the French Revolution and banned until 1799.
Adriano in Siria is a libretto by Italian poet Metastasio first performed, with music by Antonio Caldara, in Vienna in 1732, and turned into an opera by at least 60 other composers during the next century. Metastasio based the background of the story on late Classical works by Cassius Dio and Elio Sparziano.
L'Olimpiade is an opera in the form of a dramma per musica in three acts by the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Pergolesi took the text, with a few modifications, from the libretto of the same name by Pietro Metastasio. The opera first appeared during the Carnival season of 1735 at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome and "came to be probably the most admired" of the more than 50 musical settings of Metastasio’s drama.
La Salustia is a 1732 opera in three acts by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a revised text, possibly by Sebastiano Morelli, after Apostolo Zeno's famous 1716 libretto Alessandro Severo, which was also later adapted by Handel. The production was marred when the leading man Nicolo Grimaldi "Nicolini" fell fatally ill before the performance and an inexperienced substitute Gioacchino Conti "Gizziello" had to be called in at the last minute. La Salustia was Pergolesi's first opera seria. The story is based on the life of the Roman emperor Alexander Severus and his wife Sallustia Orbiana.
La contadina astuta, or Livietta e Tracollo, is an opera buffa composed by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Tommaso Mariani. It was originally composed as an intermezzo for Pergolesi's opera Adriano in Siria but subsequently became popular in its own right and was performed throughout Europe. It premiered along with Adriano in Siria on 25 October 1734 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples.
Attilio Regolo is an Italian-language opera seria by Johann Adolph Hasse based on the story of Marcus Atilius Regulus, a Roman general taken prisoner in Carthage who elects death rather than ransom. Pietro Metastasio wrote the libretto in 1740 for the birthday of the emperor Charles VI and supplied exacting notes to Hasse for its setting in music, despite the composer's having set several Metastasio librettos before. Hasse completed the score within three months, but the emperor's illness, then death, prevented the opera from being performed. It was not until 12 January 1750 that the premiere took place, at the Opernhaus am Zwinger in Dresden. The role of Regolo was taken by the castrato Domenico Annibali, while the role of Attilia was composed for Hasse's wife Faustina Bordoni.
Margherita Chimenti, known as La Droghierina was an Italian soprano. She was active for a time in London, where for George Frideric Handel she created the roles of Atalanta in Serse and Adolfo in Faramondo, both in 1738. For Giovanni Battista Pergolesi she created the role of Aquilio in Adriano in Siria in Naples in 1734. She had an extensive career in Italy as well as in London.
Il Ruggiero is an opera in three acts composed by Johann Adolph Hasse to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. It was first staged on 16 October 1771 for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand Karl with Maria Beatrice d'Este in the Teatro Regio Ducale, Milan. It was both Metastasio's last libretto and Hasse's last opera, as well as the thirty-second Metastasio libretto Hasse had set to music.
Siface re di Numidia is a libretto in three acts by Pietro Metastasio. It is a reworking of La forza della virtù by de:Domenico David and was Metastasio's first work as a librettist. it was first performed with a setting to music by Francesco Feo on 13 May 1723 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo, Naples.
Siroe re di Persia is a libretto in three acts by Pietro Metastasio. Set to music by Leonardo Vinci, it was first performed on 2 February 1726 at the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, Venice. It was subsequently set to music at least 35 times by different composers.
Demetrio is an opera libretto in three acts by Pietro Metastasio. It was first performed to music composed by Antonio Caldara on 4 November 1731 during celebrations of the name day of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI in Vienna. Different composers later used it when composing operas named Alceste, Cleonice and Demetrio, rè della Siria. With over fifty settings it was one of Metastasio's most popular works.
