Catone in Utica
Encyclopedia
Catone in Utica is an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Metastasio
Metastasio
Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi, better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio, was an Italian poet and librettist, considered the most important writer of opera seria libretti.-Early life:...

, that was originally written for Leonardo Vinci
Leonardo Vinci
Leonardo Vinci was an Italian composer, best known for his operas.He was born at Strongoli and educated at Naples under Gaetano Greco in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo. He first became known for his opere buffe in Neapolitan dialect in 1719; he also composed many opere serie...

's 1728 opera. Following Vinci's success, the work was used by numerous baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 and classical composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s for their own operas, including Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...

 and J. C. Bach among several others.

History

Catone in Utica was the first opera that Metastasio wrote for the Roman
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 public, and it was received with mixed feelings. Although audiences in Naples had previously accepted Dido’s disappearance among the flames during the last spectacular moments of Didone abbandonata
Didone abbandonata
Didone abbandonata is an opera libretto in 3 acts by Pietro Metastasio. It was his first original work and was set to music by Domenico Sarro in 1724...

, Roman critics were not as gullible with a fantastical plot that included the mortally wounded Cato slowly dying across the last two scenes of the opera. Audiences and citics also objected to the secret pathway scene being played in a disused sewer. Being sensitive to critical response, Metastasio altered the second half of his third act. In the second version, first set by Leonardo Leo
Leonardo Leo
Leonardo Leo , more correctly Lionardo Oronzo Salvatore de Leo, was an Italian Baroque composer.-Biography:...

 for Venice in 1729, Cato’s death is simply reported, and all that remains of the acquedotti antichi of the secret pathway scene is the entrance, to which a fountain of Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...

 and its surrounding trees create a visual diversion. Metastasio clearly regarded both versions of this drama as authentic, although most composers preferred the revision. In a setting by Giovanni Ferrandini, Catone in Utica opened the Cuvilliés theatre
Cuvilliés Theatre
The Cuvilliés Theatre or Old Residence Theatre is the former court theatre of the Residenz in Munich, southern Germany.- Description :...

 in Munich in 1753, and for J. C. Bach his setting for Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 (1761) was to become his most widely performed opera. The libretto also proved to be a popular success for composer Niccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni
Niccolò Piccinni was an Italian composer of symphonies, sacred music, chamber music, and opera. Although he is somewhat obscure, even to music lovers today, Piccinni was one of the most popular composers of opera—particularly the Neapolitan opera buffa—of his day...

in 1770 at the Hoftheater in Mannheim.

Sources

  • Eric Cross: "Don Neville", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed November 21, 2008), (subscription access)
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