About the work
Adriano in Siria is a three-act opera seria by Baldassare Galuppi on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. It premiered during the 1740 carnival season at the Regio Teatro in Turin.
Plot
The Roman emperor Adriano has brought the Parthian princess Emirena, daughter of the defeated king Osroa, as a captive to his court in Antioch and has fallen in love with her, although he is engaged to the Roman Sabina. Emirena's betrothed Farnaspe becomes suspected of an arson attack that Osroa in fact committed out of revenge. In the end Adriano overcomes his passion, pardons Osroa, and returns Emirena to Farnaspe, renewing his engagement to Sabina.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's text on a ruler's self-conquest was one of the most frequently set librettos of the eighteenth century; Galuppi wrote his Turin version in his early thirties, by which time he already ranked among northern Italy's sought-after opera composers.