Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio: In which are Incorporated, Translations of his Principal Letters

by Charles Burney, Pietro Metastasio

Overview

This three-volume biography, first published in 1796, recounts the colourful life of the popular Italian poet and librettist Pietro Trapassi (1698–1782), better known by his pseudonym Metastasio. Charles Burney (1726–1814), a British composer and the author of a celebrated four-volume History of Music published between 1776 and 1789, interweaves his own accounts of the poet's life with Metastasio's original letters translated into English. Metastasio's posthumously published correspondence with his friends and patrons provides the essential thread to understanding his complex life and affairs. The son of a shopkeeper, Metastasio was adopted as a young boy by the director of the Arcadian Academy, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, who was charmed by the child's extraordinary talent for improvising poetry. Volume 1 covers Metastasio's life from his early childhood until 1751, including his musical debut in Rome after his tutor's death, and the beginning of his career in Vienna.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108014526
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2010
Series:	Cambridge Library Collection - Music
Pages:	460
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.02(d)

Table of Contents

Section I. Birth - Naples - Rome; Section II. Arrival at Vienna; Section III. Extracts of letters to his brother; Section IV. Productions in 1733 - Correspondence with Bettinelli; Section V. Consequences of the demise of the Emperor Charles VI, and the subsequent war; Section VI. Correspondence with Farinelli; Section VII. Further correspondence with Farinelli; Section VIII. Connecting period; Section IX. Further correspondence with Farinelli.