Maria Antonia Walpurgis
Maria Antonia Walpurgis
Maria Antonia Walpurgis, electress of Saxony, daughter of the elector of Bavaria, later Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII; b. Munich, July 18, 1724; d. Dresden, April 23, 1780. She was not only a generous patroness of the fine arts, but a trained musician, pupil of Hasse and Porpora (1747–52). Under the pseudonym E.T.P.A. (Ermelinda Talea Pastorella Arcada, her name as member of the Academy of Arcadians) she produced and publ. 2 Italian operas to her own librettos, and sang in their premieres: II trionfo della Fedeltà (Dresden, 1754) and Talestri, regina delle Amazoni (Nymphenburg, near Munich, Feb. 6, 1760). She also wrote texts of oratorios and cantatas for Hasse and Ristori.
Bibliography
C von Weber, MA. W., Churfürstin zu Sachsen (2 vols., Dresden, 1857); H. Drewes, MA. W. als Komponistin (Leipzig, 1934).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire