Andrea Maffei (1798 – 1885) was an Italian poet, translator and

librettist 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. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major litu ...

. He was born in

Molina di Ledro Molina di Ledro was a ''comune'' (municipality) in Trentino in the Italian region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. On January 1, 2010 it merged (with Pieve di Ledro, Bezzecca, Concei, Tiarno di Sopra and Tiarno di Sotto) in the new municipality o ...

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

. A follower of

Vincenzo Monti Vincenzo Monti (19 February 1754 – 13 October 1828) was an Italian poet, playwright, translator, and scholar, the greatest interpreter of Italian neoclassicism in all of its various phases. His verse translation of the ''Iliad'' is considered ...

, he formed part of the 19th-century Italian

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

literary culture. Gaining

laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremony ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

, he moved for some years to

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

, then to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

and finally to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

, where in 1831 he married contessa Clara Spinelli. They separated by mutual consent on 15 June 1846. As well as Verdi, Maffei also built up close relationships with others in the Italian cultural scene of the time, including

Antonio Rosmini Blessed Antonio Francesco Davide Ambrogio Rosmini-Serbati (; Rovereto, 25 March 1797 Stresa, 1 July 1855) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and philosopher. He founded the Rosminians, officially the Institute of Charity or , pioneered th ...

Gino Capponi Marquis Gino Capponi (Florence, 13 September 1792 – Florence, 3 February 1876) was an Italian statesman and historian of a Liberal Catholic bent. Biography The Capponi was an illustrious Florentine aristocratic family, and is mentioned as ea ...

Mario Rapisardi Mario Rapisardi (25 February 1844, in Catania – 4 January 1912, in Catania) was an Italian poet, supporter of Risorgimento and member of the Scapigliatura (definition but refused). Life As a boy, he was taught "grammar, rhetoric and the Latin ...

Carlo Tenca Carlo Tenca (19 October 1816, Milan - 4 September 1883, Milan) was an Italian man of letters, journalist, deputy and supporter of the Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ...

, the painter

Francesco Hayez Francesco Hayez (; 10 February 1791 – 12 February 1882) was an Italian painter. He is considered one of the leading artists of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, and is renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories, and ...

, and the sculptors

Vincenzo Vela Vincenzo Vela (May 3, 1820 - October 3, 1891) was a Swiss-Italian sculptor, active mainly in northern Italy. Biography Vela was born in Ligornetto in the canton of Ticino to parents of little means. Having started work as boy as a stonecutter a ...

and

Giovanni Duprè Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...

. Key cultural figures from the rest of Europe also passed through the lounge of his house in Milan, including

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

and

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' (''The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de P ...

. In 1879 Andrea Maffei was made a

senator of the Kingdom of Italy The Senate of the Kingdom of Italy () was the upper house of the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Italy, officially created on 4 March 1848, acting as an evolution of the original Subalpine Senate. It was replaced on 1 January 1948 by the ...

and participated in Italian political life. In the mid-19th century he frequently lived at

Riva del Garda Riva del Garda (''Rìva'' in local dialect) is a town and ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Trento of the Trentino Alto Adige region. It is also known simply as ''Riva'' and is located at the northern tip of Lake Garda. History Riv ...

, where he organised his rich art collection and where, in 1935, the town's

Liceo classico Liceo classico or Ginnasio (literally ''classical lyceum'') is the oldest, public secondary school type in Italy. Its educational curriculum spans over five years, when students are generally about 14 to 19 years of age. Until 1969, this was ...

was named after him. He died in Milan in 1885.

Translator and poet

Skilled in foreign languages, he translated several works of English and

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

into Italian, particularly the plays of

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'' and '' The Tempest'', many works of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

(including ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroads ...

'') and

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...

's ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...

''. In his translations he sought to adapt the author's original thought to that of the Italian literary public. Not only a translator, he was also a poet and

Romanticist Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. For

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for his operas. He was born near Busseto to a provincial family of moderate means, receiving a musical education with the h ...

he wrote the famous libretto for ''

I masnadieri ''I masnadieri'' (''The Bandits'' or ''The Robbers'') is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, based on the play ''Die Räuber'' by Friedrich von Schiller. As Verdi became more successful in Italy, he beg ...

'', drawn from Schiller, and re-wrote some verses from

Francesco Maria Piave Francesco Maria Piave (18 May 18105 March 1876) was an Italian opera librettist who was born in Murano in the lagoon of Venice, during the brief Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Career Piave's career spanned over twenty years working with many of th ...

's libretto for ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

''. He was also a librettist for

Pietro Mascagni Pietro Mascagni (7 December 1863 – 2 August 1945) was an Italian composer primarily known for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece ''Cavalleria rusticana'' caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the ' ...

, writing the texts for his ''Il Re a Napoli in Cremona'' (1885) and ''

Guglielmo Ratcliff ''Guglielmo Ratcliff'' is a tragic opera in four acts by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Andrea Maffei, translated from the German play ''Wilhelm Ratcliff'' (1822) by Heinrich Heine. Mascagni had substantially finished the composition of ...

'' (1895, from

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

's 1822 play ''William Ratcliff'').

Translations

Gessner

*''Idilli di Gessner'' (1821)

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

*''Gli amori degli angeli'' (''The loves of angels'', 1836) *''Canti orientali'' (''Oriental poems'', 1836) *''Gli amori degli angioli'' (''The loves of angels'', 1839)

Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

*''Caino'' (1852) *''Cielo e terra'' (1853) *''Parisina'' (1853) *''Misteri e novelle'' (''Mysteries and novels'', 1868)

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

*''Arminio e Dorotea'' (1864) *''Fausto'' (1866)

Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...

*''La sposa di Messina'' (1827) *''Maria Stuarda'' (''Mary Stuart'', 1829) *''La vergine d'Orleans'' (''The Maid of Orléans'', 1830) *''Guglielmo Tell'' (''William Tell'', 1835) *''Maria Stuarda'' (''Mary Stuart'', 1835) *''Guglielmo Tell'' (''William Tell'', 1844) *''Cabala ed amore'' (1852) *''La congiura del Fiesco'' (1853) *''Turandot'' (1863)Turandot, fola tragicomica di Carlo Gozzi. Imitate da Federico Schiller e tradotte dal cav. Andrea Maffei.

Other works

*''Le satire e le epistole'' (after 1853) *''Il paradiso perduto'' (''

'', by

Milton Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free t ...

, 1857) *''Struensee'' (1863) *''Guglielmo Ratcliff'' (by

, 1875) *''L'

ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...

a Pirra'' (by

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...

, c. 1880) *''Poeti tedeschi'' (''German poets'', 1901)

Original works

*''La preghiera '' (1829) *''Studi poetici'' (1831) *''Dal Benaco'' (1854) *''Poesie varie'' (1859) *''Arte, affetti, fantasie'' (1864) *''E' morto il re!'' (1878) *''Liriche'' (1878) *''Affetti'' (1885) *''Ghirlanda per una sposa'' (1886)

Opera libretti

*''

'' (

Her Majesty's Theatre Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, ...

, London, 22 July 1847, music by

) *''David Riccio'' : 2-act drama, with prologue (1849) music by Vinc. Capecelatro (1850) *''

'' (Additions to the original): 4 part melodrama, music by Giuseppe Verdi (1850)

References

Sources *'
Letters to Andrea Maffei
'', by

(1877)
''Prometheus''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maffei, Andrea 1798 births 1885 deaths People from Trentino Italian poets Italian male poets Italian opera librettists Italian translators 19th-century Italian translators English–Italian translators German–Italian translators Italian politicians Italian people of the Italian unification Shakespearean scholars Translators of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Translators of William Shakespeare 19th-century Italian male writers Literary translators