| Atenaide | |
|---|---|
| Opera by Antonio Vivaldi | |
 Libretto title page | |
| Librettist | Apostolo Zeno |
| Language | Italian |
| Premiere | 29 December 1728 |
Atenaide (RV 702) is an opera by Antonio Vivaldi to a revised edition of a 1709 libretto by Apostolo Zeno for Caldara. [1] It was first performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on 29 December 1728 for the 1729 Carnival season. [2]
| Role | Voice type | Premiere cast: [3] 29 December 1728, Florence |
|---|---|---|
| Teodosio II, emperor, in love with Atenaide | soprano castrato | Gaetano Valletta |
| Atenaide (also called Eudossa), Leontino's daughter | soprano | Giustina Turcotti |
| Pulcheria, Teodosio's sister | contralto | Anna Girò |
| Varane, son of Isdegarde (King of Persia), also in love with Atenaide | contralto | Lisabetta Moro |
| Leontino | tenor | Annibal Pio Fabbri |
| Marziano, general of Teodosio, in love with Pulcheria | contralto | Anna Maria Faini |
| Probo, praetorian prefect, also in love with Pulcheria | tenor | Gaetano Baroni |
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was a Venetian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Along with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, Vivaldi is regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe, giving origin to many imitators and admirers. He pioneered many developments in orchestration, violin technique and programmatic music. He consolidated the emerging concerto form into a widely accepted and followed idiom.
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.
Federico Maria Sardelli is an Italian conductor, historicist, composer, musicologist, comic artist, and flautist. He founded the medieval ensemble Modo Antiquo in 1984. In 1987, Modo Antiquo also became a baroque orchestra, debuting with the performance of Jean-Baptiste Lully's Ballet des Saisons in front of an audience of about five thousand.
Antonio Caldara was an Italian Baroque composer.
The year 1729 in music involved some significant events.
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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.
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Scanderbeg is an opera in three acts composed by Antonio Vivaldi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Salvi. It was first performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence on 22 June 1718 to mark the re-opening of the theatre to public performances. While the libretto has been preserved, only fragments of the original score remain.
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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.
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Luca Antonio Predieri was an Italian composer and violinist. A member of a prominent family of musicians, Predieri was born in Bologna and was active there from 1704. In 1737 he moved to Vienna, eventually becoming Kapellmeister to the imperial Habsburg court in 1741, a post he held for ten years. In 1765 he returned to his native city where he died two years later at the age of 78. A prolific opera composer, he was also known for his sacred music and oratorios. Although his operas were largely forgotten by the end of his own lifetime and most of their scores lost, individual arias as well some of his sacred music are still performed and recorded.
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Sebastiano Biancardi, known by the pseudonym Domenico Lalli, was an Italian poet and librettist. Amongst the many libretti he produced, largely for the opera houses of Venice, were those for Vivaldi's Ottone in villa and Alessandro Scarlatti's Tigrane. A member of the Accademia degli Arcadi, he also wrote under his arcadian name "Ortanio". Lalli was born and raised in Naples as the adopted son of Fulvio Caracciolo but fled the city after being implicated in a bank fraud. After two years wandering about Italy in the company of Emanuele d'Astorga, he settled in Venice in 1710 and worked as the "house poet" of the Grimani family's theatres for the rest of his career. In addition to his stage works, Lalli published several volumes of poetry and a collection of biographies of the kings of Naples. He died in Venice at the age of 62.
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