| Adriano in Siria | |
|---|---|
| Opera seria by G. B. Pergolesi | |
&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Pergolesi_-_Adriano_in_Siria_-_frontespizio.jpg) Title page of the libretto | |
| Librettist | Metastasio |
| Language | Italian |
| Based on | Adriano in Siria |
| Premiere | 25 October 1734 |
Adriano in Siria is an opera by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi setting Metastasio's libretto of the same name. It was the third of his four opere serie, premiered at Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples on 25 October 1734.[1] It has a historical subject. Adriano is the Italian name for the Roman emperor Hadrian. Pergolesi also provided a comic intermezzo La contadina astuta, later better known as Livietta e Tracollo, to a libretto by Tommaso Mariani.[2]
Pergolesi was only 24 years old when he began to work on Metastasio's libretto in 1734. The score is dedicated to the new monarch, but was written expressly to mark the 42nd birthday of the Queen of Spain, Elisabetta Farnese. He made many changes to Metastasio's original text, largely for the famous mezzo-soprano castrato, Gaetano Majorano, known as Caffarelli. Eventually no more than 10 arias were left to be set among the 27 originally written by Metastasio, the rest having been widely replaced by different texts.[3]
- ^ Details and libretto, librettidopera.it
- ^ Julie Ann Sadie, Companion to Baroque Music p. 75
- ^ Dale E. Monson, Adriano in Siria (ii), in Stanley Sadie (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997, I, p. 28, ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2.