Metastasio

American  

[me-tah-stah-zyaw] / ˌmɛ tɑˈstɑ zyɔ /

noun

1. Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi, 1698–1782, Italian poet and dramatist.

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Metastasio British  

/ metasˈtaːzjo /

noun

1. Pietro (ˈpjɛːtro), original name Pietro Antonio Domenico Trapassi. 1698–1782, Italian poet and librettist; Viennese court poet (from 1730). His works include La clemenza di Tito (1732)

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Example Sentences

The young Salieri got to know Pietro Metastasio, the reigning librettist of eighteenth-century Italian opera, and Christoph Willibald Gluck, whose lucid, elegant style set the tone for the Viennese Classical period.

From The New Yorker • May 27, 2019

Antonio Vivaldi’s 1737 setting of a libretto by Metastasio.

From Washington Post • Nov. 29, 2015

The libretto Vivaldi used, by Metastasio — the go-to librettist of the era — survives in several forms from its use by other composers.

From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2015

He also teamed up with the emerging Metastasio, becoming the first to set several of the immortal poet's early librettos, including "Artaserse."

From New York Times • Sep. 27, 2012

Racine, Corneille, Voltaire in France, and Metastasio and Alfieri in Italy, Schiller and Goethe in Germany, have nobly upheld the legitimate drama in their respective countries.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 370, August 1846 by Various