The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Zeno, Apostolo

Born Dec. 11, 1668, in Venice; died there Nov. 11, 1750. Italian librettist and playwright.

From 1718 to 1729, Zeno was court poet and historiographer in Vienna. After 1729 he lived in Venice, where he joined a circle of Enlightenment classicists. He wrote many operatic texts (several in collaboration with P. Pariati) and also several oratorio texts. He raised the literary and intellectual level of the libretto of Italian opera and applied classicist principles to operatic dramaturgy (P. Metastasio continued and completed the reform begun by Zeno). Among his librettos are Lucio Vero, Merope, Ifigenia in Aulide, and Cajo Fabrizio. Many composers of the 18th century, including G. F. Handel, A. Scarlatti, D. Scarlatti, B. Galuppi, and F. Araia, wrote operas on Zeno’s texts. Collections of his librettos were published from time to time in the 18th century.

REFERENCES

Mokul’skii, S. Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskogo teatra, vol. 2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1939.
Pistorelli, L. I melodrammi di Apostolo Zeno. Padua, 1894.
Fehr, M. Apostolo Zeno und seine Reform des Operntextes. Zurich, 1912.

Mentioned in

Zeno, Apostolo

References in periodicals archive

Perella, an interview with Amara Lakhous, and research studies on Apostolo Zeno, Leopardi, Gadda, Camillo Pennati, as well as on key issues in Italian language and linguistics (an essay on Southern Italy's contributions to contemporary Italian language, the second part of a paper on Therese Labande-Jeanroy's Question de la langue en Italie, and a review article on Latin and Italian in the framework of linguistic superdiversity).

From the editor

Among the drammi eroici or opere serie, the first case study discussion of Teuzzone by Apostolo Zeno (from now on I refer only to the authors of the libretti since the music is not discussed at all in this book).

Adrienne Ward. Pagodas in Play: China on the Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera Stage

Este es en esencia el tema central del capitulo II,"Cervantes en escena: el libreto perdido de Apostolo Zeno y Pietro Pariati" en el cual la estudiosa italiana restablece la paternidad de unas obras mal catalogadas como Don Chisciotte in corte della duchessa de Pasquini puesto en musica por Caldara y el Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena de Pariati y Zeno con adaptacion musical de Francesco Conti.

Iole Scamuzzi, Encantamiento y transfiguracion. Don Quijote en el melodrama italiano entre los siglos XVII y XVIII

Based on an exceptional libretto by Apostolo Zeno, Atenaide was not a success when first performed in 1728.

Atenaide

As in previous chapters, a careful overview of each facet of Ifigenia's representation, including choice of the singers, composer, elements of production, and an examination of the libretto and its sources (especially the versions by Apostolo Zeno and Mattia Verazi), is rendered.

Operatic Reform in Turin's Teatro Regio: Aspects of Production and Stylistic Change in the 1760s

Lo scambio epistolare fra Marmi e Muratori, iniziato sotto gli auspici di Apostolo Zeno, occupa buona parte del volume 28 (pp.

Corrado Viola, ed.: Edizione Nazionale del Carteggio di L. A. Muratori

Under Joseph I (1705-11), for example, the poet Silvio Stampiglia and the composer Giovanni Bononcini wrote most drammi per musica; under his successor Charles VI (1711-40), the poets Pietro Pariati and then Apostolo Zeno collaborated with the musicians Fux, Caldara and Conti, though Zeno was spared the lighter or lesser genres, Fux had no hand in comedies, and Conti rarely set heroic drammi per musica.

Dramatic dualities: Metastasio and the tradition of the opera pair

Abstract: This paper focuses on the opera librettist Apostolo Zeno and his indebtedness to the tre corone of Italian literature, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.

Apostolo Zeno and the tre corone: old heroes for the new stage

Naive continues its landmark series of Vivaldi operas with this dramatic new recording of Griselda (Venice, 1735), an opera based on a libretto by Apostolo Zeno but shortened and adapted for Vivaldi by the Venetian dramatist, Carlo Goldoni.

Griselda

Williams finds space, too, for a consideration of aspects of the texts Conti set; his roster of fine librettists for his cantatas and larger dramatic works included the Court poets Pietro Pariati, Apostolo Zeno, and Silvio Stampiglia.

Francesco Bartolomeo Conti: His Life and Music