Ezio
Music by Gaetano Latilla · premiered 1758 · at Teatro di San Carlo
Ezio is an opera eroica or "heroic" opera in 3 acts by Gaetano Latilla. The opera uses an Italian-language libretto by Pietro Metastasio. Metastasio's libretto was partly inspired by Jean Racine's play Britannicus and had earlier been set to music by George Frideric Handel in 1732. The work's protagonist is the fifth-century AD Roman general Flavius Aetius (Ezio in Italian), returned from his victory over Attila. Latilla's version premiered at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 10 July 1758. The composer both directed and conducted the production and Vincenzo Re designed the sets used in the premiere. The cast included Giovanni Carestini in the title role, Caterina Gabrielli as Fulvia, Maddalena Galli as Onoria, Caterina Galli as Valentiniano III (Valentinian III), Gregorio Babbi as Massimo, and Antonio Ambrogi as Varo.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Ezio (Latilla)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Gaetano Latilla (12 January 1711 – 15 January 1788) was an Italian opera composer, the most important of the period immediately preceding Niccolò Piccinni (his nephew). Latilla was born in Bari, and studied at the Loreto Conservatory in Naples. He began writing comic operas for the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in 1732, and is best known for his settings of Gismondo (Rome, 1737) and Madama Ciana (Rome, 1738). These two works, along with two by Rinaldo da Capua, formed the core of the traveling Italian comic opera repertory of the 1740s and early 1750s. He also wrote some opere serie, the first of which was a setting of Demofoonte (Venice, 1738). He died in Naples.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Gaetano Latilla", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.