Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio 3 Volume Paperback Set: In which are Incorporated, Translations of his Principal Letters (Cambridge Library Collection - Music) - Softcover

Burney, Charles; Metastasio, Pietro

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108014674 ISBN 13: 9781108014670

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

This three-volume biography, first published in 1796, recounts the colourful life of the popular Italian poet and librettist Pietro Trapassi (1698-1782), better known by his pseudonym Metastasio. Charles Burney (1726-1814), a British composer and the author of a celebrated four-volume History of Music published between 1776 and 1789, interweaves his own accounts of the poet's life with Metastasio's original letters translated into English. Metastasio's posthumously published correspondence with his friends and patrons provides the essential thread to understanding his complex life and affairs. The son of a shopkeeper, Metastasio was adopted as a young boy by the director of the Arcadian Academy, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, who was charmed by the child's extraordinary talent for improvising poetry. Volume 1 covers his childhood and early career, Volume 2 his achievements in Vienna from 1751 to 1770, and Volume 3 his later years.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1108014674
• ISBN 13: 9781108014670
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 1364