Metastasio, Pietro (pyĕ`trō mātästä`zēō), 1698–1782, Italian poet and librettist, whose original name was Antonio Bonaventura Trapassi. A prodigy at poetic improvisation, he became court poet at Vienna in 1729. He wrote melodious lyric verse; a masque, Gli orti esperidi (1721–22); and librettos of many operas, including Didone abbandonata (1724), Artaserse (1730, tr. 1761), La clemenza di Tito (1734, tr. 1811), and Il re pastore (1751, tr. 1765). These librettos were set to music by many composers, including Gluck, Handel, Mozart, Pergolesi, and Rossini. Metastasio, with Apostolo Zeno, whom he succeeded as imperial poet laureate at Vienna, created the rigid opera seria (see opera opera, drama set to music.

Characteristics

The libretto may be serious or comic, although neither form necessarily excludes elements of the other. Opera differs from operetta in its musical complexity and usually in its subject matter.
..... Click the link for more information. ). His melodrama Attilio Regolo (1750) is generally considered his masterpiece.

Bibliography

See his Dramas and Other Poems (3 vol., tr. 1800).

Metastasio, Pietro

orig. Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi

(born Jan. 3, 1698, Rome—died April 12, 1782, Vienna) Italian poet and opera librettist. His name was changed by his adoptive father, who left the youth enough money to embark on a career as a poet. His first libretto, Didone abbandonata (1724), was so successful that he was soon known throughout Italy. Important librettos such as Enzio (1728) and Semiramide (1729) soon followed. He was invited to Vienna as court poet by Charles VI. His 27 three-act librettos were set in more than 800 operas in the 18th and early 19th century by composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, George Handel, Christoph Gluck, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Luigi Cherubini.