Giacomo Rossi was an Italian poet, translator and librettist who settled in London early in the 18th century and wrote librettos for George Frideric Handel, between 1710 and 1729. According to Rossi '' Rinaldo'' was written by Handel in a fortnight. Aaron Hill seems to have given his sketch to Rossi to translate. The libretto is according to

Winton Dean Winton Basil Dean (18 March 1916 – 19 December 2013) was an English musicologist of the 20th century, most famous for his research on the life and works—in particular the operas and oratorios—of George Frideric Handel, as detailed in his boo ...

confusing. Rossi probably worked on '' Il pastor fido'' and ''

Silla Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms ...

''. Handel emerges from the enterprise with scarcely more credit than Rossi. Rossi's name is also mentioned with for the libretto of '' Amadigi di Gaula'', or assisting in '' Poro re dell'Indie'' and '' Lotario''. The result of this latter work is unusually concise and easily understandable for a baroque opera. Rossi not only shortened the recitatives for Handel, but improved the text by shortening, rearranging and rewriting it. Almost half of the text was new.http://www.oehmsclassics.de/cd.php?formatid=175&sprache=eng In 1729 Paolo Antonio Rolli wrote: ''You will have heard by now that Attilio and Haym have died. I inform you now that the famed Rossi, Italian writer and poet is Handel’s librettist.''

Notes

Sources

* Dean, Winton; Knapp, J. Merrill (1987). Handel's Operas, 1704–1726. Clarendon Press. * Dean, Winton (2006). Handel's Operas, 1726–1741, p. 173. The Boydell Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rossi Italian opera librettists Italian expatriates in England Year of birth missing Year of death missing Italian male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century Italian translators