Metastasio

Metastasio, the Greek form of the surname of PIETRO TRAPASSI, an Italian poet, who was born of humble parents at Rome, on 6th January 1698. A precocious boy, he improvised verses and recited them to crowds on the street. This gift gained him a patron in his ninth year, one Gravina, a celebrated Roman lawyer, who educated him, and on his death (1718) left him his fortune. In 1722 Metastasio wrote his first libretto at Naples, which so charmed the great Roman singer Bulgarini, called La Romanina, that she took him into her house, and launched him on his successful career as a writer of opera-libretti—libretti which possess some real poetic qualities. These dramas, all with classical subjects, were set to music by some of the greatest composers then living, as Pergolese, Scarlatti, Durante, Hasse, Paesiello, Marcello, and others, and sung by some of the greatest singers who have ever lived, Farinelli and Caffariello. In 1729 Metastasio was appointed court-poet to the theatre at Vienna, for which he wrote several of his best pieces. His reputation spread rapidly and stood high throughout Europe, but from 1825 to 1865 his name was anathema in Italy. He died in Vienna on 12th April 1782, having for nearly forty years suffered from 'mental and moral ennui.' Good collected editions of his dramas were published at Genoa (1802) and at Padua (1811); and his Letters were edited by Carducci (Bol. 1883). See Vernon Lee's Studies of 18th Century in Italy (1880), and Lives by Burney (1796), Mussafia (1882), and Falconi (1883), the first in English, the last two in Italian.