Apostolo Zeno

Apostolo Zeno ( born December 11, 1668 Venice, † November 11, 1750 in Venice ) was an Italian scholar, poet and librettist.

Life

Zeno worked intensively on history, philology and numismatics and co-founded the Accademia degli Animosi ( 1691), the restoration of "good taste " made ​​it his goal, as well as the quarterly journal Giornale de ' letterati d' Italia (1710 ). In addition, he wrote from 1696 opera libretti for Venice, Milan and Pratolino, partly in collaboration with Pietro Pariati. Although these works constitute a large part of his work and were always set to music, he himself considered them as secondary, since he, too concentrated felt the necessity of having to entertain the audience and prefer to pursue moral goals.

1718 Zeno went as court poet and historian to Vienna, where he again worked as a librettist with Pariati and caring as a scholar to the imperial coin collections. When in 1729 Pietro Metastasio was appointed Poet Laureate, Zeno returned to Italy and devoted himself only numismatics. Its high- important coin collection was sold at auction in Vienna in 1955; the auction catalog created by the Austrian numismatist Robert Göbl.

1894 Zenogasse was named after him facility in Vienna.

Style

Zeno sought an upscale, dignified style of observing the three Aristotelian units. His pieces in the audience should arouse pity and terror and thus purify him morally. In his early works, there are still comic elements, but which he later urged more and more. He worked very rare mythological subjects; he preferred historic and exotic materials, which he always accurately stated his sources.

Works (selection)

  • Eumene (1697 ), among others, set to music by Gasparini, Porpora, Albinoni and Jommelli
  • Lucio Vero (1700), set to music, inter alia, by Albinoni, Gasparini, Galuppi, Jommelli and Traetta
  • Griselda ( 1701), set to music, inter alia, by Albinoni, Predieri, Scarlatti ( Griselda, UA 1721) and Vivaldi
  • L' amor generoso (1707 ), set to music, inter alia, by Gasparini, Vivaldi and Galuppi
  • Flavio Anicio Olibrio ( with Pariati, 1708), set to music, among other things by Gasparini, Porpora and Jommelli
  • Merope (1711 ), among others, set to music by Gasparini, Predieri, Vivaldi, Jommelli, Gassmann and Traetta
  • Lucio Papirio dittatore ( 1719), set to music, inter alia, Caldara, Hasse, Graun, Galuppi, Paisiello, Anfossi and Cherubini
  • Caio Fabrizio ( 1729 ), set to music, inter alia, Caldara, Hasse and Graun
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