Francesco Buti

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Francesco Buti , also Abbé Buti , (* 1604 in Narni , Terni Province , Italy , † June 15, 1682 in Rome , Italy) was a French pastor, lawyer and librettist of Italian descent. Under Cardinal Mazarin he was superintendent for the selection and preparation of courtly plays.

Life

He was a doctor in canon and civil law, " Abbé " in the diocese of Toulouse and apostolic protonotary . He made a quick career in the church hierarchy and became secretary and "gentilhuomo" to Cardinal Antonio Barberini . When he, together with his brothers Taddeo and Francesco , had to leave Rome in the autumn of 1645 to flee from persecution by the Pamphilj family , Buti also ended up in Paris. They found the protection of Cardinal Mazarin, whose trust Buti soon won. He made him supervisor for the selection and preparation of courtly plays and for the care of all Italian artists in Paris. Buti wrote a libretto for the performance of Luigi Rossi's opera Orfeo on March 2, 1647 in Paris. The effort made for the performance, in times when the people were starving, aroused criticism, which rocked itself up to the Fronde . Only on April 14, 1654, Buti was again the librettist for Le Nozze di Peleo e di Theti by the composer Carlo Caproli . This and other work helped him through Mazarin to French citizenship and (according to Henry Prunières ) a pension of 2000 livres from the diocese of Carcassonne .

Buti did not owe the consideration: together with Jean-Baptiste Lully he created the ballet Amour malade , whereby the king had the flighty composer locked up to keep him at work. With a stage set according to Buti's ideas, the play, first performed on January 17, 1657, was a real success. This was all the more important, as a large part of the Parisian population did not like Italians these days, but to experience the art of their own country so brilliantly flattered them. With the Duke of Modena as the guest of honor, they openly showed deep satisfaction. The impression was then that Buti had been sent to Frankfurt am Main with French ambassadors in 1658 in order to preserve the customary character of the court ballets in Paris. On the occasion of the election of the Roman Emperor , he was selected for this delicate diplomatic mission, but his weal and woe were all too tied to Mazarin - he died in 1661.

One of Mazarin's last projects was the building of the Théâtre des Tuileries . The architect Gaspare Vigarani, invited from Italy, and his two sons were led from Buti to King Louis XIV in Fontainebleau . When Buti, the great organizer of festivities, heard that the Vigaranis weren't satisfied with building a theater, but wanted to direct events as well, he kept his distance. With his friend Gian Lorenzo Bernini he was among their critics, conversely they called him il nostro perpetuo persecutore (our constant pursuer). The reason for the construction of the theater were the wedding celebrations of Louis XIV. Francesco Cavalli's opera Ercole amante was to be performed , for which Buti wrote the libretto. With the exception of Lully, up until the 18th century the responsible author was not seen in the composer but in the librettist. Buti wrote as if it was still Rossi he worked for, ignoring Cavalli's special talents. The singers had to embody characters who - with one exception - were without psychological depth. The audience could not be carried away by the play; it was believed that the pomp and festivities of the state ceremony had inflated a libretto that could not find the right path between the swollen and the lightness and whose effects went wrong.

After Mazarin's death, Louis XIV began to commission his close friend François Honorat de Beauvilliers , Duke of Saint-Aignan, to prepare his divertissements instead of Buti or Louis Hesselin . About the time after the loss of his powerful protector, only Buti's return to Rome at some point is known. His style of operatic dramaturgy with a Parisian touch can be seen as a forerunner for the works of Philippe Quinault .

Works

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ariella Lanfranchi: BUTI, Francesco . In: Dizionario Biografico Degli Italiani (Vol. XV), Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1972, pp. 603-606.
  2. ^ A b Margret M. McGowan: The Origins of French Opera . In: Anthony Lewis et al. Nigel Fortune (Ed.): New Oxford History of Music. Volume V. Oxford University Press, London a. a. 1975, p. 191 f.
  3. ^ Henry Prunières: L'Opéra italien en France avant Lully , Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, Paris 1913, p. 171.
  4. ↑ Jérôme de La Gorce: Jean-Baptiste Lully , Librairie Arthème Fayard, [Paris] 2002, p. 91.
  5. ↑ La Gorce 2002: p. 94 u. 96.
  6. ↑ La Gorce 2002: p. 100.
  7. ↑ Louis Hautecoeur: Le Louvre et les Tuileries de Louis XIV. G. Van Oest, Paris 1927, p. 86.
  8. ^ A b Johannes Hösle: Molière. His life, his work, his time , Piper Verlag, Munich 1987, p. 300.
  9. ↑ Philippe Beaussant : Lully ou Le Musicien du Soleil , Gallimard / Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, [Paris] 1992, p. 235.
  10. ↑ Jérôme de La Gorce: Carlo Vigarani, intendant des plaisirs de Louis XIV , Editions Perrin / Etablissement public du musée et du domaine national de Versailles, 2005, p. 38.
  11. ^ Silke Leopold : Buti, Francesco . In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present. Person part 3 . Bärenreiter Verlag, second, revised edition, Kassel u. a. 2000, p. 1418.
personal data
SURNAME Buti, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abbé Buti
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lawyer, librettist
DATE OF BIRTH 1604
PLACE OF BIRTH Narni
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1682
Place of death Rome