TommasoTraetta (March 30, 1727–April 6, 1779) was an Italian composer.
Traetta was born in Bitonto, a town near Bari, right down near the top of the heel of the boot of Italy.
To their influence, Traetta added some ingredients of his own, especially a feeling for dramatic colour, in the shape of his melodies and his use of the orchestra.
Tommaso Traetta (via CobWeb/3.1 planetlab1.isi.jhu.edu)(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
TommasoTraetta, maestro di cappella napoletano, un nuovo lavoro del musicologo Marco Russo, recentemente pubblicato, colma un vuoto che dura da più di un decennio negli scaffali delle librerie nella sezione musica, grandi compositori della storia.
The Traetta website project seeks to honour and perpetuate the memory of the composerTommasoTraetta and to promote knowledge and enjoyment of his music and his contribution to Italian and international cultural life by collecting, exhibiting and interpreting texts and articles related to his life and his works.
www.traetta.com.cob-web.org:8888 (5873 words)
- Classical Music Dictionary - Free MP3(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
Traetta was trained between 1738 and 1748 at the Conservatory of St. Maria di Loreto in Naples, where his teachers were Porpora and Durante.
In 1767, Gluck directed a performance of Traetta's "Ifigenia" in Florence, and he had not forgotten its music when he came to write his own "Iphigènie en Tauride".
Traetta was director of Conservatorio dell'Ospedaletto at Venice in 1765.
Italian Opera, Musical Scores and piano sheet music, Vocal Scores, Symphonyes, Ouverture and much more.(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
In 1758 he was appointed to the ducal court of Parma, which unusually for Italy had close ties with the French royal family and thus with French culture.
A year after Gluck's Orfeo Traetta went further with Ifigenia in Tauride (Vienna, 1763), the most successful treatment of this subject until Gluck's of 1779, and was widely performed (e.g.
After Russia Traetta tried London but made little impact (Sacchini was an established obstacle); he returned to Venice and died there.
Traetta's achievement was to bring the two great currents in 18th-century opera together - when he was in Parma he had encountered Rameau's tragedies lyriques, and brought elements of that style, especially its use of a chorus, into the Italian opera seria tradition.
The vocal writing for voices is dazzling - Traetta clearly had no truck with Gluck's insistence for a simpler, less decorated vocal style - and the level of invention is very high; there are very few passages that seem less than truly inspired.
The hugely informative essay that accompanies the set makes great claims for Traetta in general and for Antigona in particular, describing the opening of the second of the three acts - when Antigona cremates the body of her brother Polinices - as "realised with a pathos and lyrical feeling unsurpassed in 18th century".
iClassics(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
While it is not the work of a legendary composer, it is certainly a find, and may well be the first celebrated discovery in some time to find its way into the canon of great works and the hearts of opera lovers.
Traetta is unerring in his sense of theater; for example, Isemene's touching aria "Ah giunto invan credei" in Act I, Scene 4 ends not with a blazing high note and applause, but instead continues with the entrance of Hemon and an immediate dialogue.
Traetta employs the dramatic principles of Rameau – a composer whose dramatic and harmonic reforms were only appreciated after his death.
Italian Opera, Musical Scores and piano sheet music, Vocal Scores, Symphonyes, Ouverture and much more. (via CobWeb/3.1 ...(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
Written with Coltellini, Antigona (1772) is one of the finest operatic treatments of the gruelling story of Antigone.
Traetta worked for years with a soprano, Gabrielli, and specialised in scene-complexes involving solo voice and chorus, with highly coloured instrumentation; the funereal parts of Antigona are masterly.
Excerpts of Ifigenia and Antigona are in DTB (see Denkmäler).
The outline of the opera closely follows Sophocles' tragedy, and respectfully observes the ethical background and those elements of "Pity and Terror" which Coltellini [the librettist] considered indispensable.
The earlier opera, however, presented at the Palace of Schönbrunn, ends tragically, even cruelly, with the protagonist savagely killing the lover she has repeatedly scorned -- an ending that flies in the face not only of all operatic librettos, but also of Euripides himself.
The synopsis of Traetta's Ifigenia in Tauride as given by the Viking Opera Guide: "Orestes and Pylades are captured on the shores of Tauris while seeking the stolen image of Artemis.
Tommaso TRAETTA Antigona [PGW]: Classical Reviews- June 2001 MusicWeb(UK)(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
TommasoTRAETTA (1727-1779) was a noted member of the Neapolitan composers of the period, travelling widely for productions of his operas, including a period in London, and settling finally in Venice.
This opera to Sophocles' tragedy was premiered in 1772 at St Petersburg, where Traetta had succeeded Galuppi as Catherine the Great's maestro di corte.
The libretto by Colellini was generally praised for its creative freedom, whilst respecting the ethical background with 'Pity and Terror'.
With a practice as wide-reaching as M/M (Paris)'s, it is only natural that their ongoing project to counter the Modernist rhetoric of design would find its way into opera.
In March and June 2004, the Parisian art directors collaborated with esteemed conductor Christophe Rousset and theatre director Éric Vigner on a maverick re-staging of TommasoTraetta's 1722 opera of Greek myth Antigone.
In this captivating film version, M/M implemented a highly-specific cinematographic system to communicate the lexicon of iconography that M/M repeat and build from project to intriguing project.
French Operas in France(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
The well-designed set of Paolo Bregni turned out to be cumbersome when the dancers took the stage in appalling choreography by Deda Cristina Colonna, while Guido de Monticelli's staging was at best serviceable.
It is Traetta who is the hero, and while not everything on the live recording from Martina Franca has the quality of a studio recording, it at least enables us to encounter a composer who languishes in obscurity.
Rousset has also recorded another opera by Traetta, Antigona (Decca 460 204-2), with Maria Bayo and Lauro Polverelli that offers further proof as to Traetta's qualities.
Jahrespreis 2001 für "Antigona" von Tommaso Traetta (via CobWeb/3.1 planetlab1.isi.jhu.edu)(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
Jahrespreis 2001 für "Antigona" von TommasoTraetta (via CobWeb/3.1 planetlab1.isi.jhu.edu)
Mit der Erstaufnahme der "Antigona" erhält der Musikdramatiker und Opernreformer der Neapolitanischen Schule TommasoTraetta (1727–1779) die ihm längst gebührende Aufmerksamkeit.
Die faszinierende Repertoire-Entdeckung dieser Tragedie per musica aus dem Jahre 1772, deren Librettist der sophokleischen Vorlage eine unerwartete Wendung zum Guten beschert und die Oper mit der Hochzeit der Antigone mit Kreons Sohn Haimon enden lässt, ist ein so lehrreiches wie musikalisch eindrucksvolles Beispiel für die Erneuerung der italienischen Musiktragödie im letzten Drittel des 18.
