Agostino Piovene

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Agostino Gaetano Piovene ( October 17, 1671 in Venice - April 5, 1733 there ) was a Venetian poet and opera librettist of the Baroque .

Life

Piovene was the eldest son of the Venetian Count Coriolano and his wife Cecilia Soranzo. He probably acquired his literary knowledge in the Accademia dei Dodonei, founded in 1673, in which his father held the status of a "principe" in 1682. Around 1711 he took part in meetings of the Accademia Filarmonica "in the house of Gobbo Loredan". Musical events were held there twice a week, and during Lent, some of the noble participants performed tragedies. His two translations of classical works, Sophocles ' King Oedipus (based on the French version by André Dacier published in 1693 ) and Euripides ' Phoenissae, are probably related to this .Edipo , published in 1711, was praised by the Giornale de 'Letterati d'Italia .

Between 1709 and 1721 he wrote a total of eight opera librettos for the larger theaters of Venice such as the Teatro San Cassiano or the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo . His first two texts on medieval topics were best known: La principessa fedele from 1709 and Tamerlano from 1711, both of which were initially set to music by Francesco Gasparini . The Tamerlano in particular proved to be extremely successful with almost 40 settings. The best-known versions are by Georg Friedrich Händel ( Tamerlano from 1724) and Antonio Vivaldi (the pasticcio Tamerlano / Bajazet from 1735). Josef Mysliveček's Il gran Tamerlano has also been played more recently. Vivaldi also set La principessa fedele to music under the title Cunegonda . Piovenes libretti testify to great literary and historical knowledge.

Works

Tamerlano. Title page of the libretto, Venice 1711

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Francesco Giuntini:  Piovene, Agostino Gaetano. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 84:  Pio VI – Ponzo. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2015.
  2. ↑ Michael Talbot , Kurt Markstrom:  Piovene, Agostin. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  3. ^ Michael Talbot : The Vivaldi Compendium. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge 2011, ISBN 978-1-84383-670-4 , p. 143.
personal data
SURNAME Piovene, Agostino
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piovene, Agostino Gaetano (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Venetian poet and baroque opera librettist
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1671
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1733
Place of death Venice