Giovanni Claudio Pasquini

Giovanni Claudio Pasquini (* 1695 in Siena ; † November 1763 ibid) was an Italian poet and librettist of numerous baroque operas and fixed teatrale as well as a contemporary and friend of Pietro Metastasio .

Life

Siena and Rome

Born in 1695 in Siena, Italy, from 1719 onwards Pasquini wrote individual texts for the Accademia dei Rozzi based in Sienna . The first text from his pen to be identified is a libretto for the celebrations of the then governor of Sienna Violante Beatrix of Bavaria under the title Il trionfo d'Apollo sopra il Pitone (1719), set to music by Franco Franchini . From 1722 there is a cantata a due voci entitled Malta e Siena (1722), set to music by Girolamo Chiti, for the funeral of Marc'Antonio Zondadari , the Grand Master of the Order of Malta. In 1722 he went to Rome and worked there for Cardinal Pietro Francesco Orsini, who was elected Pope in 1724 and named Benedict XIII. assumed. He soon seems to have fallen out with these, because he went to Vienna in 1725.

Vienna 1725 to 1740

In Vienna, Pasquini was initially supported by the imperial court poet Apostolo Zeno and in 1726 he was tutor for the Archduchesses Maria Theresa and Maria Anna Eleonora Josepha . In 1733 he was appointed court poet, from 1739 to imperial court poet. From the initial wage of 700 guilders, his income rose to almost double (1500 guilders) by the end of his service life. In the fifteen years of his work in Vienna, Pasquini wrote no fewer than 67 books and librettos, from small pieces such as chamber cantatas or “fixed teatrali” to real operas. Pasquini made his debut in Vienna with the cantata Il giorno natalizio di Giove (set to music by Giuseppe Porsile ), which was published on February 15, 1726 for the birthday of the French King Louis XV. was performed in the Viennese palace of the French ambassador. Six days later, on February 21, 1726, he also made his debut as an opera librettist when his first opera ( Opera seria or “dramma per musica”) Spartaco, again set to music by Giuseppe Porsile, was performed in the Vienna Hofburg - with Faustina Bordoni . A year later, on February 6, 1727, he also tried a comic opera or, as he called it, "opera serioridicola per musica" under the title Don Chisciotte (set to music by Antonio Caldara ). In Vienna, Pasquini worked with all the composers employed at the court:

• Giuseppe Porsile (1 opera, 1 festa teatrale, various chamber music)
• Antonio Caldara (3 operas, fixed teatrale, 2 acts of an opera)
• Ignazio Maria Conti (2 fixed teatrals, 2 oratorios)
• Georg Reutter Jr. (6 fixed teatrals, 2 oratorios, 1 act of an opera)
• Giuseppe Bonno (1 oratorios, various cantatas)
• Maximilian Joseph Hellmann (Pasquini provided the text for all of his five vocal works)
• Johann Joseph Fux (1 oratorio, but very successful: La deposizione dalla croce di Gesù Cristo Salvator Nostro )

After he had fallen out with Zeno again, an intensive friendship with Pietro Metastasio developed that lasted for years , as evidenced by the intensive correspondence and numerous mentions in Metastasio's memoirs.

Mannheim 1740 to 1742

After the death of Emperor Charles VI. Pasquini left Vienna and first went to Mannheim. Here in January 1742, for the wedding of Elector Karl Theodor of the Palatinate and Bavaria, the opera Meride , for which Pasquini had written the libretto, premiered. The new Mannheim court theater was opened at the same time as this celebration. In Mannheim, Pasquini is made Knight of the Holy Roman Empire. But a more lucrative offer soon drew him to Dresden.

Dresden 1742 to 1749

On April 16, 1742, the court poet Stefano Pallavicini died in Dresden . Thereupon the Saxon court lured Pasquini to the Electoral Saxon court with his appointment as Legation Councilor and a not inconsiderable salary. He started in Dresden with two oratorios. The first was La deposizione dalla croce di Gesù Cristo Salvador Nostro (The Descent from the Cross of Jesus our Lord and Savior), the same manuscript that Antonio Caldara had already set to music in Vienna. It was newly set to music by Hasse in Dresden in 1744. La caduta di Gerico (The Fall of Jerichos) followed a year later , apparently in a completely new version of the text. In Dresden, Pasquini also wrote two of his most popular opera libretti: Arminio and Leucippo.

Pasquinis Arminio

Pasquini's libretto Arminio was set to music by Johann Adolph Hasse in Dresden in 1745 ( Arminio ). For Hasse, who had written an opera Arminio for Milan as early as 1730 (based on the libretto by Antonio Salvi ), this was the second engagement with the subject. The premiere of Arminio from Dresden took place on October 7, 1745 at the Opera House at the Zwinger. Hasse's new Arminio on Pasquini's libretto was a great success. After the premiere in October 1745, Frederick II of Prussia had the opera performed several times during the nine-day "occupation" by the Prussian army in December 1745, after he had taken Dresden, and two years later he arranged for it to be restarted "with special care" the opera at his theater in Berlin. In 1753 there was a resumption in Dresden - with a new cast in most of the roles, as many artists had left Dresden due to the war and new singers had to be found. Pasquini's and Hasse's Arminio was also performed in Wolfenbüttel and Vienna until 1761 . It was performed in Warsaw in 1761.

In 2016 Arminio von Hasse and Pasquini was performed again in Warsaw with the Orkiestra Historyczna from Katowice (Silesia).

Pasquinis Leucippo

The festa teatrale Leucippo was premiered on October 7, 1747 in the Hubertusburg hunting lodge, again set to music by Johann Adolph Hasse . Performances of this opera are attested until 1765 in Venice, Dresden, Vienna, Mannheim, Prague, Salzburg, Bratislava, London, Berlin and Braunschweig. In May 2014 Leucippo was performed again at the Schwetzingen Festival with Valer Barna-Sabadus .

Sienna 1749 to 1763

In 1749 Pasquini let himself be dismissed from Dresden and received an assurance of an annual pension of 200 thalers. However, this did not seem to enable him to maintain his standard of living. He turned repeatedly to Pietro Metastasio in Vienna and indeed received various donations from him.

Works

• Spartaco (dramma per musica), set to music by Giuseppe Porsile (1726)
• Issicratea (festa teatrale), set to music by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1726)
• Il tempio di Giano, chiuso da Cesare Augusto (componimento per musica di camera), set to music by Giuseppe Porsile (1726)
• Il contrasto della bellezza e del tempo (componimento per musica di camera), set to music by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti (1726)
• Archidamia (festa teatrale), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1727)
• Don Chisciotte in corte della duchessa (opera serioridicola), set to music by Antonio Caldara (1727)
• La forza dell'amicizia in Oreste e Pilade, ovvero Pilade ed Oreste (dramma per musica), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (Act 1) and Antonio Caldara (Act 2 and 3) (1728)
• Pieria (festa teatrale), set to music by Ignazio Maria Conti (1728)
• Telesilla (festa teatrale), set to music by Giuseppe Porsile (1728)
• Il natale di Minerva (serenata), set to music by Antonio Caldara (1729 and new 1735)
• I disingannati (componimento per musica di camera), set to music by Antonio Caldara (1729)
• Plotina (festa teatrale), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1730)
• Livia (festa teatrale), set to music by Antonio Caldara (1731)
• Zenobia (festa teatrale), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1732)
• Clelia (festa teatrale), set to music by Ignazio Maria Conti (1733)
• Sancio Pansa, governatore dell'isola Barrataria (componimento per musica di camera), set to music by Antonio Caldara (1733)
• Dafne (festa teatrale), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1734)
• Diana vindicata (festa teatrale), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1736) and Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1746)
• La speranza assicurata (serenata), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1736)
• La gara del genio con Giunone (serenata), set to music by Giuseppe Bonno (1737)
• La generosità di Artaserse (serenata), set to music by Giuseppe Bonno (1737)
• L'alloro illustrato (festa teatrale), set to music by Georg Reutter Jr. (1738)
• Gli auguri spiegati (serenata), set to music by Luca Antonio Predieri (1738)
• Meride (dramma per musica), set to music by Carlo Luigi Grua (1742)
• Arminio (dramma per musica), set to music by Johann Adolph Hasse (1745)
• Leucippo (favola pastorale), set to music by Johann Adolph Hasse (1747)

Web links

• Collected Works (in Italian) Vol. 1 (only 1 volume published)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Raffaele Mellace: PASQUINI, Giovanni Claudio . In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . tape 81 . Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, Rome 2014 ( [1] available online at treccani.it).
2. ^ ^{A b c} Winton Dean: Annibali, Domenico [Dominichino] . In: Grove Music Online .
3. ^ Moritz Fürstenau: On the history of music and theater at the court of the electors of Saxony and kings of Poland Friedrich August I. (August II.) And Friedrich August II. (August III.). Kuntze, Dresden 1862, p. 241.
4. ↑ Arminio - opera, gościnnie {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna , accessed on April 27, 2018.
5. ↑ Joachim Lange: Leucippo. Review with photos of the scene in Online Musik Magazin , accessed on October 1, 2015.