Pietro Metastasio

Pietro Metastasio was an Italian poet and librettist whose opera seria texts became central to European musical life in the 18th century.

La clemenza di Tito: An opera seria libretto by Metastasio, first set by Antonio Caldara in 1734 and later famously set by Mozart. Its repeated settings reveal how Metastasio’s texts outlived their original musical contexts.
Opera seria: A genre of serious Italian opera dominant in European courts during the 18th century. It was the principal theatrical form for which Metastasio wrote.
Antonio Caldara: An Italian Baroque composer who served at the Habsburg court in Vienna and set many librettos by Metastasio. Caldara’s 1734 setting of La clemenza di Tito inaugurated their close collaboration.
Metastasian opera: The tradition of opera seria shaped by the plots, characters, and poetic conventions of Metastasio’s librettos. His texts became models that composers and theaters repeatedly adapted.
Didone abbandonata: Metastasio’s 1724 opera seria libretto about Dido’s abandonment by Aeneas. This debut libretto established the dramatic style that made his name.
Da capo aria: An aria form in which a contrasting middle section is followed by a return to the opening section. Metastasio’s scenes often culminate in arias built for this form.
Johann Adolf Hasse: A German composer celebrated for Italian opera seria, especially at the Dresden court. Hasse’s numerous settings helped establish Metastasio’s texts across European opera houses.
Opera seria reform: Eighteenth-century efforts to reshape opera seria’s dramatic structure, musical conventions, and theatrical effect. Later reformers challenged conventions that Metastasio’s works had helped codify.
Artaserse: Metastasio’s libretto about the Persian king Artaxerxes, first set to music by Leonardo Vinci in 1730. Its many musical settings illustrate the wide circulation of his stage works.
Recitative: A vocal style that follows speech rhythms and advances dramatic action in opera and oratorio. Recitative carries the dialogue and decisions between his characters’ arias.

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