Johann Adoph Hasse – born/baptized 1699, Bergedorf (near Hamburg, Germany);
un-aliv’d December 16, 1783 - Venice, Italy
Johann Adolf [Adolph] Hasse was a German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, he was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music, and was a pivotal figure in the development of 18th-century music and of opera seria.
Despite G. B. Mancini claiming that Johann Adolf Hasse was the padre della musica, and despite the composer's massive popularity as a figure at the very forefront of 18th-century serious Italian opera, after his death Hasse's reputation vastly declined and his music lay mostly unperformed (with the exception of some of his sacred works, which were occasionally revived in Germany). Careful choice of key was also a crucial factor in J.A. Hasse's style, with certain emotions usually marked out by certain key choices. A Major was chosen to express amorous feelings, while C and B-flat would be used for expressions of aristocratic nobility. F minor and C (minor?) were usually the keys for supernatural and fear-inducing music. Most of his arias begin in the major, going minor for the B section before returning to major for the D. C. Symphonic music is contained in his Op. 5, very normal and characteristic of the symphony’s early years.
Johann Adolf Hasse's career began in singing, when he joined the Hamburg Opera in 1718 as a tenor. In 1719 he obtained a singing post at the court of Brunswick, where in 1721 his first opera, Antioco, was performed; Johann himself sang in the production.
During the 1720's he lived mostly in Naples, dwelling there for six or seven years. In 1725 his serenata Antonio e Cleopatra, was performed at Naples. The success of this work not only earned Hasse many commissions from Naples's opera houses, but also, according to Johann Joachim Quantz, brought him into contact with Alessandro Scarlatti, who became his teacher and friend; he would later alter his style in several respects to reflect that of A. Scarlatti.
Within a period of increased popularity in Naples, and a workload to match it, Hasse composed his only full opera buffa, La sorella amante, in addition to several intermezzi and serenatas.
1730 was the year that marked his marriage to Faustina Bordoni and his appointment to Kapellmeister at the Dresden court (though prior activity and commitment prevented him and his new wife from arriving until July of the following year). Soon afterward Faustina performed before the court, and in September Johann's new Metastasio text was given its premiere. J.S. Bach may or may not have attended the performance, but Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach allegedly claimed that J.A. Hasse and his father had become good friends around this time.
Many of his sacred works, composed for Venice's churches and when he’d begun to travel more often, date back to the time in 1733 when Hasse’s patron at Dresden died. He continued to compose a fair number of operas, and his general avoidance of comic opera seems to have been due to Faustina, who feared that the style of singing demanded by opera buffa would damage her voice. In 1751 she retired from operatic performance. Her husband continued to produce new operas throughout the decade, and in the autumn of 1760 he moved to Vienna, where he stayed for the next two years, returning to Dresden in 1763 to find a mostly destroyed home and a severely wrecked court opera (probably because of the Seven Years’ War of 1756), as well as an endangered career (two-year salary but no pension) under new management—to make a long story short.
Hasse would continue his travels in spite of (or because of) certain setbacks.
He spent his final ten years in Venice, teaching and composing sacred works.
Information largely taken from the Bach Cantatas Website.
Applause to the listeners!
