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 by

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 Me ...

, 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 Garda_Pietro_Torri,_Neue_Hofkapelle_München,_Christoph_Hammer_(2)_–_Le_Triomphe_de_la_Paixat_Christoph_Hammer">_Pietro_Torri,_Neue_Hofkapelle_München,_Christoph_Hammer_(2)_–_Le_Triomphe_de_l ...

(1736), Antonio Vivaldi (1737),

Giovanni Battista Ferrandini Giovanni Battista Ferrandini (c. 1710 – 25 October 1791), an Italian composer of the Baroque and Classical eras, was born in Venice, Italy and died in Munich, at the age of about 81. He was a child prodigy and entered the service of Duke ...

(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 Carlo Francesco Pollarolo (ca. 1653 – 7 February 1723) was an Italian composer, organist, and music director. Known chiefly for his operas, he wrote a total of 85 of them as well as 13 oratorios. His compositional style was initially indebted t ...

(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 Georg ...

, text after

Matteo Noris NGOs are an effective source of change and could be much more effective than governmental plans alone. Non federal government institutions typically take initiatives for delivering social adjustment in our society. Our agency is actually one-stop re ...

(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 The Teatro delle Dame, also known as the Teatro Alibert (its original name), was a theatre in Rome built in 1718 and located on what is now the corner of Via D'Alibert and Via Margutta. In the course of its history it underwent a series of reconstr ...

, 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 Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

) * 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 Geminiano Giacomelli (sometimes Jacomelli) (28 May 1692 – 25 January 1740) was an Italian composer. Biography Giacomelli was born in Piacenza. In 1724 he was named to the post of ''Kapellmeister'' to the duke of Parma. Beginning with the fir ...

, 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) in ...

, Venice, 1729 * Johann Adolph Hasse, 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 i ...

, 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, Antonio Vivaldi, Hasse, and

. *

, Munich, 1736 * Antonio Vivaldi, 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 Wahrenbr� ...

, Berlin, 1744 * Niccolò Jommelli, Vienna, 1749 *

, Munich, 1758 *

Vincenzo Legrenzo Ciampi Vincenzo Legrenzo Ciampi (2 April 1719 – 30 March 1762) was an Italian composer. He is best known today for a work that cannot be certainly ascribed to his pen, the song " Tre giorni son che Nina in letto senesta", formerly called Pergolesi's "Ni ...

, Venice, 1750 * Florian Leopold Gassmann, Vienna, about 1760 * Johann Christian Bach, 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 T ...

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

References

Sources

*
Volume I

Volume II

Volume III
{{Authority control Libretti by Metastasio 1728 operas