L'Endimione

Metastasio, Pietro, 1698-1782Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 25K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.L'Endimione by Pietro MetastasioAuthor: Metastasio, Pietro, 1698-1782,Language: Italian, Class: ML: Music: Literature of music, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

L'Endimione is a dramatic libretto by Metastasio based on the Greek myth of Endymion and the moon goddess, belonging to his prolific sequence of opera seria texts. The Project Gutenberg edition is a public-domain Italian-language e-book, compact enough to read through in one sitting. Its highlight is the placement of the mythical romance in a setting where pastoral and courtly scenes intertwine, advancing emotion through elegant recitatives and arias, exemplifying the eighteenth-century libretto's standardized treatment of mythological subjects. For researchers, it can be read alongside other librettos by the same author to observe the repetition and variation in character configuration and rhetorical conventions; for opera enthusiasts, it serves as a sample for understanding the "mythological–pastoral" type of libretto. Suitable for desk reading and textual analysis, not for readers seeking intense dramatic conflict.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers of Italian literature and drama who need to analyze Metastasio's libretto techniques
Students of opera history who wish to understand the textual form of mythological opera seria
Intermediate to advanced readers of Italian seeking a public-domain dramatic text of moderate length
Readers interested in later reworkings of the Endymion myth

Not a good fit for

Readers who need a score, director's script, or accompanying performance recording
Readers who prefer realistic subjects and complex psychological portrayal
Italian beginners who cannot independently handle Baroque syntax

Reading tips

First review the basic versions of the Endymion myth, then read the libretto, noting which plot elements the author added or removed.
Read act by act and record the emotional trajectory of each scene's arias to observe the libretto's lyrical rhythm.
Compare with the author's other mythological librettos and list the similarities and differences in character types and scene conventions.
Read the recitative passages aloud to appreciate the rhythm and tone of an eighteenth-century Italian libretto.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this libretto suitable for direct staging?

The book is a literary text and does not contain a score or the complete performance information of stage directions. For staging, one must separately find the corresponding musical version and directorial treatment; this electronic text alone is not sufficient for a production.

What are the typical features of Metastasio's librettos?

His librettos are known for regular structure and elegant rhetoric, often using mythological or historical subjects, with recitatives advancing the plot and arias expressing emotion, and with clearly typified characters. When reading, note how these conventions operate in the specific text.

Does the electronic edition have notes or an introduction?

According to the Gutenberg entry information, the book is a public-domain electronic text, and the record shows no accompanying scholarly notes or introduction. Readers needing background material should consult relevant works on literary and opera history themselves.

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About the author

Metastasio, Pietro, 1698-1782 Author · Italian · 1698–1782

Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) was an Italian poet and opera librettist, a representative figure of eighteenth-century European opera seria. Public information on the details of his life is limited, but from his extant works and literary-historical assessments it is clear that he was chiefly known for writing opera librettos. His subjects were mostly drawn from Greek and Roman myth and historical legend; his language is elegant and his structures well ordered, with attention to emotional expression and dramatic tension, meeting the period's requirements of opera seria for metre and musicality. Il sogno di Scipione and L'Endimione exemplify his typical style of classical subject matter and lyrical elaboration. His librettos were set to music by numerous composers and circulated widely in eighteenth-century European theatres, exerting an important influence on the standardization of opera seria librettos and the elevation of their literary quality; his works remain important material for studying opera literature in the transition from the Baroque to the Classical period.