Biography
Johann Adolph Hasse was baptized in 1699 in Bergedorf near Hamburg and began his musical career as a tenor at Hamburg's Gänsemarkt opera, where his first opera, "Antioco," premiered in Braunschweig in 1721. From 1722 to 1725 he studied in Naples under Nicola Porpora and Alessandro Scarlatti, absorbing the Italian operatic style. The success of his opera "Artaserse" in Venice in 1730 earned him the nickname "il divino Sassone" (the divine Saxon). That same year he married the soprano Faustina Bordoni; from 1731 he served as court composer in Dresden, shaping one of Europe's leading opera houses for three decades. The poet Pietro Metastasio, whose librettos he set in more than twenty operas, valued him above all other composers of his texts. After a period in Vienna (1764–1773), Hasse died on 16 December 1783 in Venice.
On Stagelog
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