About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Tommaso Traetta after Pietro Metastasio's libretto, first performed on 29 April 1762 at the Teatro Pubblico in Reggio nell'Emilia. Metastasio's 1729 text was, after 'Artaserse', one of his most frequently set librettos, used by more than 50 composers.
Plot
After defeating the Indian king Poro in battle, Alexander the Great shows magnanimity, pardoning his captured opponent and restoring his rule. The plot is overlaid with the love between Poro and Queen Cleofide, who must balance loyalty to her people against the victor's favour, and with Alessandro's own inner conflict between conquest and nobility of spirit.
Cultural significance
Like many settings of the Alessandro story, Traetta's version places the victor's magnanimity above military triumph — a recurring motif of enlightened rule in Metastasio's librettos. The opera was written while Traetta was serving as court composer in Parma and working at the same time on the renewal of opera seria.