The German composer Johann Adolf Hasse was
born in Bergedorf on 25 March 1699 and died in
Venice on 23 December 1783. He chose Italy as
his adopted country: there he was nicknamed “the
dear Saxon”. He was a pupil of Nicola Porpora
and Alessandro Scarlatti, from whom he learned
the typical composition style of the Neapolitan
School. In 1727 he was appointed Kapellmeister
of the Conservatorio degli Incurabili of Venice,
city in which he met his bride, Faustina Bordoni.
He was engaged as a composer by the Polish
court, for which he composed a great number of
operas that were staged in Dresden and in other
European countries, particularly Italy. The arias
presented here by Elena De Simone belong to the
genre of the opera seria and have been chosen
among the most representative ones in Hasse’s
unpublished production, which is based on texts
– most of them by Metastasio and Apostolo Zeno
– that were a great source of inspiration for the
major European musicians of that time.