METASTASIO, ( orig. Trapassi ) PIETRO,(b. Rome, Italy 3 Jan 1698; d. Vienna, 12 April 1782 )
Metastasio was an Italian poet and librettist , particularly promoted by the singer Marianna Benti-Bulgarelli. His first work was published at the age of fourteen. Recognised by his contemporaries, his aim was to develop and purify the opera libretto. In doing so he cut down on the use of stage machinery, reliance on the supernatural to further plots, and the interpolation of comedy into tragedy.
He dealt largely with mythical and divine subjects. His heroes were aristocratic and generally showed only formal emotion. Metastasian operas also tended to hold up the action of his stories by inserting opportunities for the showing off of singers' vocal skills.
Later librettists and composers reacted against the artificiality of his characters and plots. In his own time, however, he was admired particularly for his metaphor arias, in which the singer took a metaphor or simile, illustrated by the music, to explore a dramatic or emotional situation.
Of his huge output, some texts were set up to 60 and 70 times.
