Page:Rolland - A musical tour through the land of the past.djvu/159

Rh acquaintance, and fell in love with him. She was thirty-five years of age, and he was twenty-three. She was not beautiful; her features were strongly marked and rather masculine, but she was extremely kind in a sensual sort of way, and highly intelligent. She gathered together in her house at Naples all the most distinguished artists: Hasse, Leo, Vinci, Palma, Scarlatti, Porpora, Pergolesi, Farinelli. In this circle Metastasio completed his poetico-musical education, thanks to the conversation of these men, the lessons which he received from Porpora, and above all the advice, intuition and artistic experience of La Romanina. For her he wrote his first melodrama, Didone abbandonata (1724), which, by its Racine-like charm and emotion, marks a date in the history of Italian opera. La Romanina was the triumphant interpreter of his earliest poems, among others of Siroe, which almost all the great European composers were to set to music.

After 1727 they went to Rome. There the three led a singular family life: Metastasio, La Romanina and the husband, Bulgarelli. La Romanina despised her husband, but lavished a jealous and passionate love on Metastasio. The old story, so often repeated, had its inevitable climax. Metastasio turned his back upon Italy. In 1730 he was summoned to Vienna as poeta Cesareo. He left Rome, conferring upon his cara Marianna full powers to administer, alienate, sell, exchange or convert his property and his income, without rendering him any account. La Romanina could not endure his departure; three months later she set out for Vienna. She did not succeed in getting farther than Venice.