Pietro Pariati

The author of prose tragedies, comic intermezzi, verses of various kinds, and pastoral fables, he is mainly known for his libretti, of which he composed at least ten as sole author, and many more in collaboration with the more famous Apostolo Zeno; the most successful of these, performed in theatres up to the end of the century, were Sesostri re di Egitto (1709) and Arianna e Teseo (1726).

Apart from many oratorio librettos, his most popular opera librettos included:

• Flavio Anicio Olibrio (with Zeno, 1708), set by Gasparini, Porpora and Jommelli
• Astarto (with Zeno, 1708), set by Albinoni and Caldara
• Sesostri re di Egitto (1710), set by Gasparini and Galuppi
• Il Giustino (after Beregan, 1711), set by Albinoni, Vivaldi and Händel
• Costantino (1711), set by Gasparini and Lotti/Caldara
• Teseo in Creta (1715), set by Porpora, Händel and Galuppi
• Orfeo ed Euridice (1715), set by Johann Joseph Fux
• Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena (with Zeno, 1719), set by Conti and Holzbauer

• A. Zeno, Poesie drammatiche (Venezia, 1744)
• N. Campanini, Un precursore del Metastasio (Reggio Emilia, 1889)
• O. Wessely, Pietro Pariatis Libretto zu Johann Joseph Fuxens ‘Costanza e fortezza’ (Graz, 1969)
• G. Gronda, ‘Per una ricognizione dei libretti di Pietro Pariati’, Civiltà teatrale e Settecento emiliano: Reggio nell’Emilia, pp. 115–36 (1985)
• E. Kanduth, Das Libretto im Zeichen der Arcadia, Paradigmatisches in den Musikdramen Zenos (Pariatis) und Metastasios, Opern als Text: Romanistische Beiträge zur Libretto-Forschung, pp. 33–53 (Heidelberg, 1986)
• G. Gronda, La carriera di un librettista: Pietro Pariati da Reggio di Lombardia (Bologna, 1990)
• R. Bossard, Von San Luca nach Covent Garden: die Wege des Giustino zu Händel, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, vol. IV, pp. 146–73 (1991)
• G. Gronda, La Betulia liberata e la tradizione viennese dei componimenti sacri, Mozart, Padova e la ‘Betulia liberata’, pp. 27–42 (Padua, 1989)
• L. Bianconi, G. La Face Bianconi, I libretti italiani di Georg Friedrich Händel e le loro fonti (Florence, 1992)
• B. Brumana, Figure di Don Chisciotte nell’opera italiana tra Seicento e Settecento, Europäische Mythen der Neuzeit: Faust und Don Juan, pp. 699–712 (Salzburg, 1992)
• A. Sommer-Mathis, Von Barcelona nach Wien: die Einrichtung des musik- und Theaterbetriebes am Wiener Hof durch Kaiser Karl VI, Musica Conservata: Günther Brosche zum 60. Beburtstag, pp. 355–80 (Tutzing, 1999)