About the work
Antigono is a three-act opera seria on a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, originally written for Emperor Charles VI's name day and, after his death, first performed only in 1743 in Dresden in a setting by Johann Adolph Hasse. Niccolò Jommelli set the text in September 1744 for the Teatro Grande in Crema and revised his score for a production in Lucca in 1746 and again for the Nuovo Teatro in Cremona in 1757.
Plot
The Macedonian king Antigono is betrothed to the Egyptian princess Berenice, but his son Demetrio has also fallen in love with her and is banished for it. When Alessandro of Epirus, another of Berenice's suitors, invades Macedonia, Demetrio nonetheless stays loyal to his father and repels the attack. In gratitude for his son's steadfastness, Antigono finally gives up his own bride to him.
Cultural significance
For the 1746 Lucca revival, Jommelli had the printed libretto issued with a separate booklet of substitute arias, evidence of the period's common practice of tailoring roles to individual singers. That the opera returned to the stage in Cremona as late as 1757 points to its continued presence in northern Italian theatres.