Leonardo Vinci - Catone in Utica - titlepage of the libretto - Rome 1728

Pietro Torri - Catone in Utica - italian titlepage of the libretto - Munich 1736

''Catone in Utica'' (; ) is an

opera libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Metastasio Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi (3 January 1698 – 12 April 1782), better known by his pseudonym of Pietro Metastasio (), was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of '' opera seria'' libretti. Early life M ...

, that was originally written for

Leonardo Vinci Leonardo Vinci (1690 – 27 May 1730) was an Italian composer known chiefly for his 40 or so operas; comparatively little of his work in other genres survives. A central proponent of the Neapolitan School of opera, his influence on subsequ ...

's 1727 opera. Following Vinci's success, Metastasio's text was used by numerous composers of the baroque and classical eras for their own operas, including

Pietro Torri Pietro Torri (c. 1665 or earlier, in Peschiera del GardaChristoph Hammer"> Pietro Torri, Neue Hofkapelle München, Christoph Hammer (2) – Le Triomphe de la Paixat Discogs website. – 6 July 1737, in Munich) was an Italian Baroque music">Baroque ...

(1736),

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread ...

(1737), Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (1753) and J. C. Bach (1761).

History

Before Metastasio's ''Catone in Utica'' libretto,

Cato the Younger Marcus Porcius Cato "Uticensis" ("of Utica"; ; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger ( la, Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. His conservative principles were focused on the ...

had already been the subject of following operas: * ''Catone il giovane'', by Bartolomeo Monari, libretto by (Bologna 1688)Domenico Pietropaolo, Mary Ann Parker (2011)
''The Baroque Libretto: Italian Operas and Oratorios in the Thomas Fisher Library at the University of Toronto''.
University of Toronto Press. , p.&nbs
109
/ref> * ''Catone Uticensi'', by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (Venice 1701) * ''Cato'', German opera by

Reinhard Keiser Reinhard Keiser (9 January 1674 – 12 September 1739) was a German opera composer based in Hamburg. He wrote over a hundred operas. Johann Adolf Scheibe (writing in 1745) considered him an equal to Johann Kuhnau, George Frideric Handel and Geor ...

, text after Matteo Noris (Hamburg 1715) Metastasio wrote ''Catone in Utica'' in Italian, as a libretto for an opera in three acts. He changed the name of Cornelia to Emilia and that of

Juba Juba () is the capital and largest city of South Sudan. The city is situated on the White Nile and also serves as the capital of the Central Equatoria State. It is the world's newest capital city to be elevated as such, and had a population ...

to Arbace, as better suited for music.

set the libretto to music for the first time. Vinci's opera was premiered at the Teatro delle Dame, Rome, during the carnival of 1727.

Content

The subject of the libretto is the death of Cato the Younger, set in Utica. Following characters are represented: * Catone (

) * Cesare ( Julius Caesar) * Marzia, daughter of Catone, secretly in love with Cesare * Arbace, Prince of Numidia, friend of Catone and lover of Marzia * Emilia, widow of Pompeo (

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

) * Fulvio, legate of the Roman Senate and lover of Emilia.

Operas

Metastasio's libretto was also set by: * Geminiano Giacomelli, Vienna, 1727 *

Leonardo Leo Leonardo Leo (5 August 1694 – 31 October 1744), more correctly Leonardo Ortensio Salvatore de Leo, was a Baroque composer. Biography Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni (currently known as San Vito dei Normanni, province of Brindisi) ...

, Venice, 1729 *

Johann Adolph Hasse Johann Adolph Hasse (baptised 25 March 1699 – 16 December 1783) 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 co ...

, Turin, 1732 *

George Frederick Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training ...

, London, 1732, a ''pasticcio'' adapted mainly from Leo's 1729 setting, but transposing, editing or even entirely replacing its various arias to suit the skills of the singers he had at his disposal; some of the interpolated arias included pre-existing compositions by

Porpora Nicola (or Niccolò) Antonio Porpora (17 August 16863 March 1768) was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli. Other students included composers ...

, Hasse, and

. *

, Munich, 1736 *

, Venice and Verona, 1737 * Egidio Duni, Italy, about 1738 * , Brunswick, 1743 *

Carl Heinrich Graun Carl Heinrich Graun (7 May 1704 – 8 August 1759) was a German composer and tenor. Along with Johann Adolph Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time. Biography Graun was born in Wahrenbrü ...

, Berlin, 1744 *

Niccolò Jommelli Niccolò Jommelli (; 10 September 1714 – 25 August 1774) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic reforms including re ...

, Vienna, 1749 * Giovanni Battista Ferrandini, Munich, 1758 * Vincenzo Legrenzo Ciampi, Venice, 1750 * Florian Leopold Gassmann, Vienna, about 1760 *

Johann Christian Bach Johann Christian Bach (September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era, the eighteenth child of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the youngest of his eleven sons. After living in Italy for several years, Bach mov ...

, Naples, 1761 * Gian Francesco de Majo, Naples, 1763 *

Niccolò Piccinni Niccolò Piccinni (; 16 January 1728 – 7 May 1800) was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly th ...

, Naples, 1770 * , Naples, 1777 * , Milan, 1782 *

Giovanni Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini. Life Paisiello was born in ...

, Naples, 1788 * Peter Winter, Venice, 1791.

References

Sources

*
Volume I

Volume II

Volume III
{{Authority control Libretti by Metastasio 1728 operas