Handel lovers puzzled by the emergence of a previously unknown Handel opera called Catone will have things clarified upon learning that the work is a pasticcio -- a pastiche or compilation -- rather than an original composition. The libretto by Pietro Metastasio dealt with the last stand of the Roman Republic in Utica (now in Tunisia), a favorite topic of democratic-minded audiences. Handel assembled arias by other composers who had already set the libretto, namely Leonardo Leo, Johann Adolf Hasse, Antonio Vivaldi, Leonardo ...
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Handel lovers puzzled by the emergence of a previously unknown Handel opera called Catone will have things clarified upon learning that the work is a pasticcio -- a pastiche or compilation -- rather than an original composition. The libretto by Pietro Metastasio dealt with the last stand of the Roman Republic in Utica (now in Tunisia), a favorite topic of democratic-minded audiences. Handel assembled arias by other composers who had already set the libretto, namely Leonardo Leo, Johann Adolf Hasse, Antonio Vivaldi, Leonardo Vinci, and Haydn's teacher Niccolò Porpora, adding a few transitions, ruthlessly pruning the Italian-language recitative that English audiences couldn't understand, and apparently furnishing a couple of instrumental sections. The results do not make any less sense plotwise than the common run of Baroque operas, and really they offer quite a bit of insight into Handel's world. Historically Catone has been ignored because it was taken to be merely Handel's solution to an overgrown...
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