About the work
Alessandro e Poro is an opera seria by Carl Heinrich Graun, set to Pietro Metastasio's libretto about Alexander the Great's encounter with the Indian king Porus. Graun wrote it for the Royal Court Opera in Berlin, where it premiered on 21 December 1744.
Plot
After defeating King Porus, Alexander the Great must decide how to treat the vanquished ruler. Entangled in the traitor Timagene's schemes and in the feelings of Queen Cleofide, who loves Porus, Alexander ultimately chooses magnanimity, forgiving Porus and restoring his kingdom to him.
Cultural significance
Like Metastasio's related subject 'La clemenza di Tito', the work celebrates a victorious ruler's clemency toward the defeated – a theme that at Frederick II's court could also be read as a self-image of the enlightened monarch.