- Apostolo Zeno
Apostolo Zeno (born in
Venice ,December 11 ,1668 ; died in Venice,November 11 ,1750 ) was an Italian poet, librettist, journalist, and man of letters.A venetian nobleman, he was in 1691 among the founders of the "Accademia degli Animosi". In 1695, he composed his first
libretto , "Gli inganni felici", which obtained great success, making him a fashionable librettist. From 1705, he worked withPietro Pariati , keeping the theatrical scenes for himself and leaving to Pariati the composition of the libretti.He began work as a literary journalist for the "Galleria di Minerva", also taking upon executive responsibilities, but distanced himself when he realized that he had not succeeded in making the impact upon the publication that he intended. In the end he described it as an "idiocy".
In 1710 together with
Scipione Maffei ,Antonio Vallisneri and his brother,Pier Caterino Zeno , he founded the "Giornale de' letterati d'Italia", maintaining that it was necessary that "Italians themselves make their own newspaper... revealing that good sense, erudition and ingenuity never were lacking among us, and now more than ever are they flourishing."The tri-monthly publication had prestigious contributors such as Scipione Maffei, Antonio Vallisneri,
Eustachio Manfredi ,Ludovico Antonio Muratori ,Giovanni Battista Morgagni ,Giovan Battista Vico ,Bernardino Ramazzini . Motivated above all by the desire to improve italian learning, it enjoyed considerable success.When Apostolo Zeno was called to duty as poet laureate to the imperial court of
Vienna in 1718, his brother, Pier Caterino took over the direction until 1732, publishing the periodical annually. Apostolo remained in Vienna until 1729, at which point he was replaced byPietro Metastasio . He returned to Venice, dedicating himself to works of erudition and to coin-collecting.Works
He wrote the libretti for 36 operas with historical and mythological themes, including "Gli inganni felici" (1695), "Faramondo" (1698), "Lucio Vero" (1700), "Merope" (1711), "Alessandro Severo" (1716), "Griselda" (1718), "Teuzzone" (1719), and "Semiramide" (1725), as well as 17 oratorios. Among his literary works, the "Dissertazioni vossiane" are additions and corrections to "De historicis latinis" by Voss. His "Annotazioni" to the "Biblioteca della eloquenza italiana" by
Giusto Fontanini were published posthumously. His correspondence ("Epistolario") is ample.Critical evaluation
From condemnation of the unrealistic and exaggerated elemensts of
melodrama was born a demand for greater verisimilitude in plots and for literary dignity in texts. Zeno was the first to undertake reform to make melodrama more sober, according to thearcadici principles, developed further by Metastasio. Inspired by French tragedians, he respected, as they did, the rule of theunity of time and space . He reduced the number of characters and scenes and eliminated theclown role s, constructing his works so that they could be presented also without music.Francesco De Sanctis , referring to Metastasio, wrote that "if we look at the structure, his drama is constructed in the fashion which Apostolo Zeno already demonstrated. But the structure is only a simple skeleton. Metastasio breathed into that skeleton the grace and the romance of a happy and harmonious life. He was the poet of melodrama; Zeno was the architect."
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