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Apostolo Zeno
Apostolo Zeno (11 December 1668 in Venice – 11 November 1750 in Venice) was a Venetian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters. Early life Apostolo Zeno was born in Venice to a colonial branch of the Zeno family, an ancient Venetian patrician family. His family had been transplanted from Venice to the Kingdom of Candia in the 13th century in order to maintain Venetian order and suppress any rebellious subjects. Following the assault on the island by the Ottoman Empire, the remaining members of his family returned to Venice. Upon return they were not readmitted to the patrician class, but were only able to obtain status as ordinary citizens. His father was Pietro Zeno, a doctor of medicine, and his mother, Caterina Sevasto, belonged to an illustrious and powerful family from Candia, Crete. Having lost his father at an early age, he was left to the care of his mother, who remarried to Venetian senator Pier Antonio Cornaro. His education was entrusted to the Somasc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Battista Morgagni
Giovanni Battista Morgagni (25 February 1682 – 6 December 1771) was an Italian anatomist, generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 years as Professor of Anatomy at the University of Padua. His most significant literary contribution, the monumental five-volume ''On the Seats and Causes of Disease'', embodied a lifetime of experience in anatomical dissection and observation, and established the fundamental principle that most diseases are not vaguely dispersed throughout the body, but originate locally, in specific organs and tissues. Education His parents were in comfortable circumstances, but not of the nobility; it appears from his letters to Giovanni Maria Lancisi that Morgagni had ambitions to improve his rank. It may be inferred that he succeeded from the fact that he is described on a memorial tablet at Padua as ''nobilis forolensis'', "noble of Forlì", apparently by right ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1669 Births
Events January–March * January 2 – Pirate Henry Morgan of Wales holds a meeting of his captains on board his ship, the former Royal Navy frigate ''Oxford'', and an explosion in the ship's gunpowder supply kills 200 of his crew and four of the pirate captains who had attended the summit. * January 4 – A 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes the city of Shamakhi in Iran (now in Azerbaijan) and kills 7,000 people. Fourteen months earlier, an earthquake in Shamakhi killed 80,000 people. * February 13 – The first performance of the ''Ballet de Flore'', a joint collaboration of Jean-Baptiste Lully and Isaac de Benserade is given, premiering at the Palais du Louvre in Paris. King Louis XIV finances the performance and even appears in a minor role in the production as a dancer. * February 23 – Isaac Newton writes his first description of his new invention, the reflecting telescope. * March 11 – Mount Etna erupts, destroying the Sicilian town of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clown Role
A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, around 2400 BC. Unlike court jesters, clowns have traditionally served a socio-religious and psychological role, and traditionally the roles of priest and clown have been held by the same persons. Peter Berger writes, "It seems plausible that folly and fools, like religion and magic, meet some deeply rooted needs in human society." For this reason, clowning is often considered an important part of training as a physical performance discipline, partly because tricky subject matter can be dealt with, but also because it requires a high level of risk and play in the performer. In anthropology, the term ''clown'' has been extended to comparable jester or fool characters in non-Western cultures. A society in which s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unity Of Time And Space
The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are: #''unity of action'': a tragedy should have one principal action. #''unity of time'': the action in a tragedy should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours. #''unity of place'': a tragedy should exist in a single physical location. History Italy In 1514, author and critic Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478 – 1550) introduced the concept of the unities in his blank-verse tragedy, ''Sofonisba''. Trissino claimed he was following Aristotle. However, Trissino had no access to Aristotle's most significant work on the tragic form, ''Poetics''. Trissino expanded with his own ideas on what he was able to glean from Aristotle's book, ''Rhetoric''. In ''Rhetoric'' Aristotle considers the dramatic elements of action and time, while focusing on audience reception. Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pontifical Academy Of Arcadia
The Accademia degli Arcadi or Accademia dell'Arcadia, "Academy of Arcadia" or "Academy of the Arcadians", was an Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690. The full Italian official name was Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi. History Foundation The beginnings of the Accademia degli Arcadi date to February 1656, when a literary circle formed under the patronage of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had abdicated the Swedish crown in 1654, converted to Catholicism, and taken up her residence in Rome, where she spent much of the rest of her life. There she became a significant patron of music and opera, with composers including Alessandro Scarlatti, Alessandro Stradella and Arcangelo Corelli dedicating works to her. After her death in 1689, the academy was established in her memory and elected her as its symbolic head (''basilissa'', the Greek term for 'Queen'). The Academy lasted for the next two hundred years, remaining a leading cultural institution into the 20th century. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill stereotypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality and family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, filmed, or on television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers cues to the audience of the drama being presented. In scholarly and historical musical contexts, ''melodramas'' are Victorian dramas in which orchestral music or song was used to accompany the action. The term is now also applied to stage performances without incidental music, novels, films, tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giusto Fontanini
Giusto Fontanini (30 October 1666 in San Daniele del Friuli – 17 April 1736 in Rome) was a Roman Catholic archbishop and an Italian historian. Biography A prelate and attentive bibliophile, in 1697 became a stubborn and reactionary defender of the Papal Curia. In 1708, he was a protagonist of a contentious controversy over the possession of the territory of Comacchio between the Papacy and the Este Dukes of Modena along with their protector, the Austrian Hapsburg empire. In 1597, the then Duke of Ferrara Alfonso II d'Este died without heirs. While the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II recognized as heir to Alfonso, his cousin Cesare d'Este, his dubious legitimacy led the papal states to claim the Duchy of Ferrara, including Comacchio. Cesare and his successors were constrained to the Duchy of Modena. However in 1708, an Austrian army claimed Commacchio by marching an army to occupy the town. While the Papacy gathered an army to confront the imperial garrison, the rival political an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domenico Sarro
Domenico Natale Sarro, also Sarri (24 December 1679 – 25 January 1744) was an Italian composer. Born in Trani, Apulia, he studied at the Neapolitan conservatory of S. Onofrio. He composed extensively in the early 18th century. His opera ''Didone abbandonata'', premiered on 1 February 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples, was the first setting of a major libretto by Pietro Metastasio. He is best remembered today as the composer of '' Achille in Sciro'', the opera that was chosen to open the new Teatro di San Carlo in 1737. Of his many intermezzi, 'Dorina e Nibbio' or L'impresario delle Isole Canarie (1724) has had an extensive performance history. With a libretto by Pietro Metastasio (his only comic libretto), it was performed often and imitated internationally (with versions by Albinoni, Gasparini, Leo, Martini and others). In recent years it was performed in the State Theatre of Stuttgart, the Bochum Symphony as well as the Semperoper The Semperoper () is the opera h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Temistocle (Porpora)
''Temistocle'' is an opera in three acts composed by Nicola Porpora to an Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno. It was first performed at the Hoftheater in Vienna on 1 October 1718. It is possibly the same opera that was performed on 30 May 1756 at the Teatre de la Santa Creu, Barcelona. There is another version, also by Porpora, to a libretto by Metastasio, first performed in 1743, as well as another opera on the same subject by Francesco Manelli (1595–1670).'' Enciclopèdia Espasa'', vol. 32, p. 787 () Apostolic Zeno's libretto was also set to music by Marc'Antonio Ziani in 1701 and by Fortunato Chelleri in 1721. Roles and action The action is set in the 5th century BC and concerns the Athenian general Themistocles who is in exile at the court of Artaxerxes I of Persia. It is based on book 1 of Thucydides' '' Historiae.'' Artaserse, Temistocle, Palmide (lover of Temistocle), Eraclea (daughter of Temistocle), Cambise (favourite of Artaserse, in love with Palmide), Clearco (Ath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pietro 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 Metastasio was born in Rome, where his father, Felice Trapassi, a native of Assisi, had taken service in the Corsican regiment of the papal forces. Felice married a Bolognese woman, Francesca Galasti, and became a grocer in the ''Via dei Cappellari''. The couple had two sons and two daughters; Pietro was the younger son. Pietro, while still a child, is said to have attracted crowds by reciting impromptu verses on a given subject. On one such occasion in 1709, two men of distinction stopped to listen: Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, famous for legal and literary erudition as well as his directorship of the Arcadian Academy, and Lorenzini, a critic of some note. Gravina was attracted by the boy's poetic talent and personal charm, and made Pietro hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
