METASTASIO’S MUSICIANS
Partly because it was a fairly late work and partly because of its extraordinary literary demands, Attilio Regolo was not frequently set to music. Besides Hasse’s setting there were only three others, the last in 1780. By contrast, Metastasio’s most popular libretto, the most frequently reused operatic libretto of all time, was Artaserse (Artaxerxes). It was set first in 1730 by Leonardo Vinci, Scarlatti’s successor as maestro di cappella in Naples, for performance in Rome. Vinci’s setting became a frequently revived classic in its own right and helped establish the text as a must for budding composers. (Two very famous later composers of opera, Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck and Johann Christian Bach, made their debuts with settings of Artaserse, in 1741 and 1760 respectively.)
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 4 Class and Classicism." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-04005.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 4 Class and Classicism. In Oxford University Press, Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 Jan. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-04005.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 4 Class and Classicism." In Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 Jan. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume2/actrade-9780195384826-div1-04005.xml
