Tommaso Traetta
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Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779), was an Italian
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
and
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, he was responsible for certain operatic reforms including reducing the ornateness of style and the primacy of star singers.


Biography

Traetta was born in Bitonto, a town near
Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...
in the
Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...
region of
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. He was a student of a composer, singer, and teacher Nicola Porpora in Naples, and found early success with his opera ''Il Farnace'' in 1751. Around this time, he came into contact with Niccolò Jommelli. Traetta found regular commissions throughout Italy, before accepting a post as court composer at
Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...
in 1759. The ruler of Parma, Philip, Duke of Parma had married the eldest daughter of
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
. In Parma, there was a craving for all things French and the splendor of Versailles. It was in Parma that Traetta's operas first moved in new directions. As a result, '' Antigona'', his 1772 opera for Saint Petersburg, was amongst his most forward-looking, the closest he approached the famous reform ideals usually associated with Gluck. It was at the court of the Duke of Bourbon-Parma, that Traetta ran into some fresh air from France. In Parma in 1759, he found several noteworthy collaborators, and he was fortunate in finding that the man in charge of opera there was a highly cultivated Paris-trained Frenchman, Guillaume du Tillot, who had the complete cultural portfolio among all his other responsibilities as Don Felipe's First Minister. To judge from the general stylistic influence in terms of grand scenic effects, and from some specific musical borrowings, Traetta had access in Parma to copies and reports of Rameau's operas. To their influence, Traetta added some ingredients of his own, especially a feeling for dramatic colour, in the shape of his melodies and his use of the orchestra. The result was a combination of Italian, French, and German elements, which even expected the ''
Sturm und Drang (, ; usually translated as "storm and stress") was a proto-Romanticism, Romantic movement in German literature and Music of Germany, music that occurred between the late 1760s and early 1780s. Within the movement, individual subjectivity an ...
'' movement to flourish a few years later, further North. The first fruit of this Francophilia was the opera Traetta wrote in 1759. '' Ippolito ed Aricia'' owes a lot to Rameau's great tragédie lyrique of 1733, '' Hippolyte et Aricie''. But Traetta's is no mere translation of Rameau. Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, Traetta's
librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, 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 ...
in Parma, completely reworked the original French version by abbé Pellegrin, which itself had been based on Racine, in its turn stemming ultimately from ancient Greek roots–the '' Hippolytus'' of
Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...
. Frugoni kept certain key French elements: the five-act structure as against the customary three; the occasional opportunities for French-style spectacle and effects and, in particular, the dances and divertissements that end each of those five acts; and more elaborate use of the chorus than, for instance, in Hasse and Graun and Jommelli. Through the following decade, the 1760s, Tommaso Traetta composed music (including
opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abou ...
) unceasingly. There was a clutch of comedies as well, and sacred music composed to imperial order. For Traetta served from 1768 to 1775 as music director for
Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...
of Russia, to which he moved. Still, opera seria was what her imperial majesty commanded. Traetta's first operas for Catherine the Great seem to have been largely revivals and revisions of his earlier works. In 1772 came ''Antigona'', which reached areas of expression he had not explored before. The Court Opera of
Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...
performed in a theatre close to her apartments inside of the Winter Palace itself, created by the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, architect of many buildings in Saint Petersburg, including the Hermitage. In 1783, sometime after Traetta's departure, she ordered it to be closed and a new one built. Traetta departed Saint Petersburg in 1775, and resumed the opera composer's life, even writing two works for London: ''Germondo'' in 1776 and ''Telemaco'' in 1777. According to the Traetta Association in Bitonto, he had left Saint Petersburg under threat of assassination by the empress—it seems he was enraged that she insisted on a happy ending for Antigona, and in revenge put music for Polish independence into the final chaconne. He left in time, but his librettist was poisoned. Traetta was shortly married and had a son, Filippo Traetta, who in 1800 moved to America and became a fairly successful composer. Tommaso Traetta died in April of 1779, in
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
.


Operas


Bibliography

* ''Stabat Mater'' (Naples) vocal score, Idea Press, Port St. Lucie, 2017, * ''Miserere'', vocal score, Idea Press, Port St. Lucie, 2015, * ''Il Cavaliere Errante'', vocal score, Idea Press, Port St. Lucie, 2015, * Messa in Do, vocal score'', Idea Press, Port St. Lucie, 2014, * ''Stabat Mater'' (Munich), Idea Press, Port St. Lucie, 2015,


See also

* Traetta Prize


References


Further reading

* Marco Russo, ''Tommaso Traetta: i Libretti della Riforma – Parma 1759–61'', Facoltà di Lettere di Trento, Trento 2005 * Marco Russo, ''Tommaso Traetta: Maestro di cappella napoletano'', Edizioni S. Marco dei Giustiniani, Genova 2006 * Fabrizio Cassoni, Gianfranco Spada, ''Le Feste d'Imeneo, Tommaso Traetta a Parma'', Traettiana, London 2010 * Susanne Dunlap, ''Armida – Traetta, Salieri and Righini in Vienna'', Traettiana, London 2011


External links

*
Operone list of Traetta operas
*
Traetta.com website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Traetta, Tommaso 1727 births 1779 deaths Musicians from the Kingdom of Naples 18th-century Italian male musicians Italian Classical-period composers Neapolitan school composers 18th-century Italian composers Italian male classical composers Italian opera composers Italian male opera composers People from Bitonto