(b Reggio nell’Emilia, 27 March 1665; d Vienna, 14 Oct 1733). Italian poet and librettist. Secretary to Rinaldo, Duke of Modena, he was in Madrid in 1695 and after his return to Italy spent three years in prison. He then lived in Venice from the end of 1699 until summer 1714, when he was appointed court poet in Vienna by Charles VI, for whom he had already written laudatory theatrical works staged in Barcelona.
In Venice Pariati started to work as a librettist with Apostolo Zeno, contributing to the versification and drafting of his librettos. The extent of their collaboration is not as great as has been thought, however; Pariati alone was responsible for Artaserse, Anfitrione, La Svanvita, Il falso Tiberino, Sesostri re di Egitto and Costantino (for an alternative view see Zeno, Apostolo). He began by revising ‘in the modern style’ 17th-century works such as Sidonio and turning into dramma musicale form recent tragedies such as Giulio Agosti’s Artaserse. Very soon he began to turn out prose works on his own account for the Milan and Bologna stages. Established at the same time in Venetian theatrical circles, where he met composers including Albinoni and Gasparini and the buffo singers Giovanni Battista Cavana and Santa Marchesini, he devoted himself to writing comic scenes, tragicommedie (Anfitrione) and intermezzos, particularly for the Teatro S Cassiano. Drawing on Plautus, Molière and Cervantes, together with a wide theatrical experience, he refined the features that became characteristic of his comic style: rapid pace, brightness of dialogue and a taste for lexical extremes.
In Vienna, where he was joined by Zeno in 1718 and replaced by Metastasio in 1729, Pariati wrote oratorios (13), cantatas and chamber works (15), pastoral dramas and theatrical pieces (14) for the festive celebrations of the imperial family. The most famous such piece was the festa teatrale Costanza e Fortezza, set by Fux in 1723. For the court theatre he revived earlier works, wrote two new librettos and continued to collaborate with Zeno. He also found a new expressive freedom in the fantasy intermezzo and comic scene, using comedy not only as a source of laughter and entertainment, but also as an instrument with which to provoke, deride and debunk. Between 1716 and 1724 Pariati wrote alone four intermezzos and four tragicommedie; with Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena and Alessandro in Sidone he even involved Zeno in his chosen field, dragging him beyond the confines of serious works into the territory of literary parody and social criticism. He exploited his favourite devices fully, varying and intertwining them: dual identity in Il finto Policare and Penelope, the philosopher’s ironic situation in Alessandro in Sidone and in Creso, mental imbalance in Don Chisciotte and Archelao. Avoiding generic forms, Pariati flung his darts at diverse targets, including personal enemies and court intrigue, the very foundations of opera seria. He thus effected a twofold distortion: corrosive parody undermines the drama’s heroic virtue and progressively erodes credibility, while an explosive stylistic mixture gives rise to the transformation into tragicomedy.
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dramma per musica |
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Artaserse (dm, after G. Agosti), Giannettini, 1705 (Orlandini, 1706; Sandoni, 1709; Ariosti, 1724); Antioco (dm, with A. Zeno), F. Gasparini, 1705; Ambleto (dm, with Zeno), Gasparini, 1706 (Carcani, 1742); Statira (dm, with Zeno), Gasparini, 1706 (Albinoni, 1726); Sidonio (dm), Lotti, 1706; Florinetta e Frappolone (int), ?Gasparini, 1706; Anfitrione (tragicommedia), Gasparini, 1707; La Svanvita (dm), A. Fiorè, 1707 (Schürmann, 1715, as Regnero) |
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Flavio Anicio Olibrio (dm, with Zeno), Gasparini, 1708 (Porpora, 1711; G. Porta, 1726, as Il trionfo di Flavio Olibrio; Vinci, 1728; E. Duni, 1736, as La tirannide debellata; Jommelli, 1740, as Ricimero re dei Goti); L’Engelberta (dm, with Zeno), Fiorè, 1708; Astarto (dm, with Zeno), Albinoni, 1708 (F. Conti, 1718; Caldara, 1725); Pollastrella e Parpagnacco (int), Gasparini, 1708; Vespetta e Pimpinone (int), Albinoni, 1708 (Conti, 1717, as Grilletta e Pimpinone); Zenobia in Palmira (dm, with Zeno), ?Chelleri, 1709 (Leo, 1725; Brusa, 1725, as L’amore eroico) |
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Il falso Tiberino (dm), C.F. Pollarolo, 1709; Brunetta e Burlotto (int), 1709; Ciro (dm), Albinoni, 1710 (Conti, 1715); Sesostri re di Egitto (dm), Gasparini, 1710 (A.M. Bononcini, 1716; Conti, 1717; Fiorè, 1717; Sellitto, 1742; Terradellas, 1751; Cocchi, 1752; Bertoni, 1754; Sarti, 1755; Galuppi, 1757; Sciroli, 1759; C. Monza, 1760; P. Guglielmi, 1766); Bertolda e Volpone (int), 1710; Galantina e Tulipano (int), ?Albinoni, 1710; Il Giustino (dm, after N. Beregan), Albinoni, 1711 (Vivaldi, 1724; Handel, 1737) |
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Costantino (dm), Gasparini, 1711 (Lotti and Caldara, 1716; Orlandini, 1731, as Massimiano); Dorimena e Tuberone (int), Conti, 1714; Teseo in Creta (dm), Conti, 1715 (Leo and others, 1721, as Arianna e Teseo); Porpora, 1728, as Arianna e Teseo; Broschi, 1732, as Arianna e Teseo; Handel, 1734, as Arianna in Creta; Lampugnani, 1737, as Arianna e Teseo; P. Chiarini, 1739, as Arianna e Teseo, G. de Majo, 1747, as Arianna e Teseo; Abos, 1748, as Arianna e Teseo; Pescetti, 1750, as Arianna e Teseo; Sarti, 1756, as Arianna e Teseo; Mazzoni, 1758, as Arianna e Teseo; Carcani, 1759, as Arianna e Teseo; Ponzo, 1762, as Arianna e Teseo; Galuppi, 1763, as Arianna e Teseo; Insanguine, 1773, as Arianna e Teseo; Fischietti, 1777, as Arianna e Teseo; Winter, 1792, as I sacrifizi di Creta) |
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Bagatella, Mamalucca e Pattatocco (int), Conti, 1715; Galantina e Pampalugo (int), Conti, 1715; Il finto Policare (tragicommedia), Conti, 1716; Cajo Marzio Coriolano (dm), Caldara, 1717; Farfalletta, Lirone e Terremoto (int), Conti, 1718; Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena (tragicommedia, with Zeno), Conti, 1719; Alessandro in Sidone (tragicommedia, with Zeno), Conti, 1721, Archelao re di Cappadocia (tragicommedia), Conti, 1722; Costanza e Fortezza (festa teatrale), Fux, 1723; Creso (tragicommedia), Conti, 1723; Penelope (tragicommedia), Conti, 1724 |
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Doubtful: comic scenes for Alba Cornelia, 1704 (Conti, 1714) [lib. also attrib. S. Stampiglia]; Erighetta e Don Chilone (int), ? Gasparini, 1707 [lib. also attrib. A. Salvi] |
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Da la virtude ha la bellezza onore (serenata), Pollarolo, 1704; Il voto crudele (orat), A. Lotti, 1712; L’Umiltà coronata in Esther (orat), Lotti, 1714; I satiri in Arcadia (favola pastorale), Conti, 1714, rev. as Cloris und Thyrsis (favola pastorale), Conti, 1721; La Fede sacrilega nella morte di S Giovanni Battista (orat), J.J. Fux, 1714; Dafne in lauro (componimento per camera), Fux, 1714; La donna forte nella madre dei sette Maccabei (orat), Fux, 1715; La più bella (festa teatrale), G. Reinhardt, 1715; Angelica vincitrice di Alcina (festa teatrale), Fux, 1716; Il fonte della salute aperto dalla grazia nel Calvario (componimento sacro), Fux, 1716; Caio Marzio Coriolano, A. Caldara, 1717; Diana placata (festa teatrale), Fux, 1717; Gesù Cristo condannato (componimento per musica), Caldara, 1717; Alceste (festa teatrale), G. Porsile, 1718; Cristo nell’orto (componimento per musica), Fux, 1718; Amore in Tessaglia (serenata), Conti, 1718; La colpa originale (orat), Conti, 1718; Elisa (componimento teatrale), Fux, 1719; Galatea vendicata (festa teatrale), Conti, 1719; Gesù Cristo negato da Pietro (componimento per musica), Fux, 1719; Apollo in cielo (componimento da camera), Caldara, 1720; Cantata allegorica (cant.), Conti, 1720; La cena di Signore (componimento sacro), Fux, 1720; Il giudicio di Enone (festa teatrale), Reinhardt, 1721; La via del saggio, Conti, 1721; Il rè del dolore in Gesù Cristo Signor nostro coronato di spine (componimento sacro), Caldara, 1722; Le nozze di Aurora, Fux, 1722; Trionfo d’amore (componimento poetico), Albinoni, 1722; La concordia de’ planeti, Caldara, 1723; Il giorno felice (componimento per musica), Porsile, 1723; Meleagro (festa teatrale), Conti, 1724; La corona d’Arianna (festa teatrale), Fux, 1726; Il Testamento di nostro Signor Gesù Cristo sul Calvario (componimento sacro), Fux, 1726; Il sacrifizio in Aulide (festa teatrale), G. Reutter, 1735 |
A. Zeno: Poesie drammatiche, ed. G. Gozzi (Venice, 1744)
N. Campanini: Un precursore del Metastasio (Reggio nell’Emilia, 1889, 2/1904)
O. Wessely: Pietro Pariatis Libretto zu Johann Joseph Fuxens ‘Costanza e fortezza’ (Graz, 1969)
G. Gronda: ‘Per una ricognizione dei libretti di Pietro Pariati’, Civiltà teatrale e Settecento emiliano: Reggio nell’Emilia 1985, 115–36
E. Kanduth: ‘Das Libretto im Zeichen der Arcadia, Paradigmatisches in den Musikdramen Zenos (Pariatis) und Metastasios’, Opern als Text: Romanistische Beiträge zur Libretto-Forschung, ed. A. Gier (Heidelberg, 1986), 33–53
G. Gronda, ed.: La carriera di un librettista: Pietro Pariati da Reggio di Lombardia (Bologna, 1990) [incl. essays by B. Dooley, H. Seifert and R. Strohm]
R. Bossard: ‘Von San Luca nach Covent Garden: die Wege des Giustino zu Händel’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, iv (1991), 146–73
G. Gronda: ‘La Betulia liberata e la tradizione viennese dei componimenti sacri’, Mozart, Padova e la ‘Betulia liberata’: Padua 1989, 27–42
L. Bianconi and G. La Face Bianconi, eds.: I libretti italiani di Georg Friedrich Händel e le loro fonti (Florence, 1992–)
B. Brumana: ‘Figure di Don Chisciotte nell’opera italiana tra Seicento e Settecento’, Europäische Mythen der Neuzeit: Faust und Don Juan: Salzburg 1992, 699–712
A. Sommer-Mathis: ‘Von Barcelona nach Wien: die Einrichtung des musik- und Theaterbetriebes am Wiener Hof durch Kaiser Karl VI’, Musica Conservata: Günther Brosche zum 60. Beburtstag, ed. J. Gmeiner and others (Tutzing, 1999), 355–80
GIOVANNA GRONDA