Artaserse
Encyclopedia
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...
. Artaserse is the Italian form of the name of a Persian king, Artaxerxes.
There are over 40 known settings of Metastasio's text. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
was first set by Vinci
Leonardo Vinci
Leonardo Vinci was an Italian composer, best known for his operas.He was born at Strongoli and educated at Naples under Gaetano Greco in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo. He first became known for his opere buffe in Neapolitan dialect in 1719; he also composed many opere serie...
in 1730 for Rome. It was subsequently set by Hasse
Johann Adolph Hasse
Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music...
in 1730 for Venice and in 1760 for Naples, by Gluck in 1741 for Milan, by Chiarini
Pietro Chiarini
Pietro Chiarini was an Italian composer.From 1738 to 1744, he was in Venice where four of his operas and an oratorio were performed. Later he went to Cremona, where in 1754 he wrote and presented the intermezzo La donna dottor. He was later appointed maestro di cappella at the court of Cremona in...
in 1741 for Verona, by Graun
Carl Heinrich Graun
Carl Heinrich Graun was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolf Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.-Biography:...
in 1743 for Stuttgart, by Terradellas
Domènech Terradellas
Domènec Terradellas was a Spanish opera composer, although all his works were thoroughly Italian in style. Born in Barcelona, the son of a day laborer, his early musical training is unknown...
in 1744 for Venice, by Galuppi in 1749 for Vienna, by Johann Christian Bach
Johann Christian Bach
Johann Christian Bach was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as 'the London Bach' or 'the English Bach', due to his time spent living in the British capital...
in 1760 for London, by Josef Mysliveček
Josef Myslivecek
Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music...
in 1774 for Naples (Artaserse
Artaserse (Mysliveček)
Artaserse is an opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček, set to a popular libretto by Metastasio that was originally performed in 1730...
), by Marcos Portugal
Marcos Portugal
Marcos António da Fonseca Portugal was a Portuguese classical composer, who achieved great international fame for his operas in Italian....
in 1806 for Lisbon and many other times. The text was often altered.
Thomas Arne's 1762 Artaxerxes
Artaxerxes (opera)
Artaxerxes is an opera in three acts composed by Thomas Arne set to an English adaptation of Metastasio's 1729 libretto Artaserse. The first English opera seria, Artaxerxes premiered on 2 February 1762 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden and continued to be regularly performed until the late 1830s...
is set to an English libretto that is based on Metastasio's. Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's aria for soprano and orchestra "Conservati fedele
Conservati fedele
"Conservati fedele" is a concert aria for soprano and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.-History:Mozart composed the aria in October 1765 while staying at The Hague during the family's British-European tour, when he was nine years old. Both of the Mozart children, Wolfgang and his sister...
" (K. 23, 1765) is set to the parting verses of Mandane (Artaserse's sister) at the end of the first scene.
The opera was famously performed in 1734 as a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
, featuring songs by various composers such as Attilio Ariosti
Attilio Ariosti
Attilio Malachia Ariosti was an Italian composer in the Baroque style, born in Bologna. He produced more than 30 operas and oratorios, numerous cantatas and instrumental works.-Life:He was born into the middle class...
, Nicola Porpora
Nicola Porpora
Nicola Porpora was an Italian composer of Baroque operas and teacher of singing, whose most famous singing student was the castrato Farinelli. One of his other students was composer Matteo Capranica.-Biography:Porpora was born in Naples...
and Riccardo Broschi
Riccardo Broschi
Riccardo Broschi was a composer of baroque music and the brother of the opera singer Carlo Broschi, known as Farinelli....
. It was in this that Broschi's brother, Farinelli
Farinelli
Farinelli , was the stage name of Carlo Maria Broschi, celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera.- Early years :...
, sang one of his best known arias, Son qual nave ch'agitata.