ABSTRACT
Pietro Pariati and Apostolo Zeno supplied almost all of the librettos for Francesco Bartolomeo Conti secular dramatic works performed in Vienna. The four librettists whose names appear in connection with Conti’s operas are Francesco Ballerini, Claudio Pasquini, Pietro Metastasio, and Francesco Fozio. The stylized attributes of recitativo semplice are responsible for the many tedious and dull passages of recitative that so often occur in a Baroque opera. In Act V, Scene vii of this same opera, a similar treatment is in evidence, but his music expresses a general attitude rather than a simple gesture. Conti uses Don Chisciotte proclamation of his identity as an excuse to characterize the knight-errant’s grandiose conception of him. Conti can also set an entire recitative in such a way that the whole number rather than a few bars of it evokes the desired reaction in the audience. The majority of the arias in Conti’s operas begin with an instrumental ritornello.
