Editing Johann Adolph Hasse (section)

==Vienna and Venice: last years==
In 1764 Hasse travelled to Vienna, where the coronation of [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] was marked by a performance of his ''[[festa teatrale]]'' ''Egeria'', again set to a libretto by Metastasio. For the most part, he remained at Vienna until 1773. Mozart was present at a performance of his ''Partenope'' in September 1767. Most of his operas composed during this period were also successfully produced at Naples. He was the favourite of [[Maria Theresa of Austria|Maria Theresa]], and it can be argued that he took up the job of ''de facto'' court ''Kapellmeister.'' With the premiere of ''[[Piramo e Tisbe]]'' (September 1768) Hasse had intended to retire from opera but was compelled by Maria Theresa to compose a further work, ''Ruggiero'' (1771), again set to a Metastasian libretto. In 1771, when hearing 15-year-old Mozart's opera ''[[Ascanio in Alba]]'', Hasse is reported to have made the prophetic remark: "This boy will cause us all to be forgotten."<ref>[[Michael Kennedy (music critic)|Kennedy, Michael]]; Bourne, Joyce: ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music.'' Oxford University Press, 2007. {{page needed|date=July 2018}}</ref>

At this time operatic style was undergoing significant change, and the model of ''opera seria'' that Hasse and Metastasio had settled found itself assailed by the threat of the reforms of [[Christoph Willibald Gluck]] and [[Ranieri de' Calzabigi]], as laid down in the music and libretto for Gluck's opera ''[[Orfeo ed Euridice]]''. [[Charles Burney]], visiting Vienna in 1773, reported on the debate.
{{blockquote|text=Party runs as high among poets, musicians and their adherents, at Vienna as elsewhere. Metastasio and Hasse, may be said, to be at the head of one of the principal sects; and Calsabigi and Gluck of another. The first, regarding all innovations as quackery, adhere to the ancient form of the musical drama, in which the poet and musician claim equal attention from an audience; the bard in the recitatives and narrative parts; and the composer in the airs, duos and choruses. The second party depend more on theatrical effects, propriety of character, simplicity of diction, and of musical execution, than on, what they style flowery description, superfluous similes, sententious and cold morality, on one side, with tiresome symphonies, and long divisions, on the other.<ref name="burney1773">{{cite book |last1=Burney |first1=Charles |title=The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces |date=1773 |publisher=T. Becket and Co. |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/presentstateofmu00burn}}</ref>{{rp|pp=232–233}}}}

Finding his music under siege from an ''avant-garde'' surge in a new direction, Hasse left Vienna in 1773 and spent the final ten years of his life in Venice, teaching and composing sacred works. Faustina died in November 1781, and Hasse himself, after a long period of suffering from arthritis, just over two years later. He was almost completely ignored after his death, until F. S. Kandler paid for his gravestone in Venice, where he is buried in [[San Marcuola]], and authored a biography of Hasse in 1820.<ref>Reference for this section: {{harvnb|Hansell|2001|loc=§6 "Last years"}}</ref>