Hasse, Johann Adolf (1699–1783)

German composer. He began his career as a singer in Hamburg, and produced his first opera, Antioco, in 1721. He wrote about 70 operas, and became the most successful composer of opera seria (treating classical subjects in a formal style) of his generation.

Hasse was a tenor at the Hamburg Opera under Reinhard Keiser 1718–19, then at Brunswick, 1719–22, where Antioco was first produced. In 1922 he went to Italy and studied with Nicola Porpora and Alessandro Scarlatti. After many successful operas for Naples, he became maestro di cappella at the Conservatorio degli Incurabili in Venice in 1727. He married the singer Faustina Bordoni in 1730, and in 1734 went to Dresden as Kapellmeister to the Saxon Court, a post he held for 30 years. He was allowed generous leave of absence, however, and travelled widely, including a visit to London, England, in 1734. In 1764, after the death of the Saxon Elector, he moved to Vienna, then in 1773 to Venice, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Works Opera Antioco (1721), Il Sesostrate (1726), Tigrane (1729), Artaserse, Cleofide (1731), Cajo Fabricio (1732), Il Demetrio, Siroe, rè di Persia (1733), Tito Vespasiano (1735), Lucio Papirio (1742), Didone abbandonata, Antigono (1743), Semiramide riconosciuta (1744), Arminio, Leucippo, Demofoonte (1748), Attilio Regolo (1750), Il Ciro riconosciuto (1751), Solimano, Ezio, Olimpiade, Alcide al Bivio (1760), Il trionfo di Clelia (1762), Partenope, Piramo e Tisbe (1768), Ruggiero (1771), and many others.

Other oratorios I pellegrini al sepolcro, Sant' Elena al calvario (1746), La conversione di Sant' Agostino (1750); Masses and other church music; concertos for flute and for violin; solo sonatas, trio sonatas, harpsichord pieces.