About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to a libretto by Domenico Lalli, reworked by Claudio Nicola Stampa, originally written in 1713 for Francesco Mancini's "Il gran Mogol." It was first performed during the 1730 carnival season at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, followed that autumn by a revised version at Count Sporck's theatre in Prague.
Plot
At the court of the Great Mogul Tisifaro, his cousin Silvero seduces the ruler's daughter Zanaida by posing as her beloved Argippo. When the real Argippo arrives at court with his lawful wife Osira, the mistaken identity leads to serious misunderstandings that are only gradually resolved.
Cultural significance
The score was long thought lost until conductor Ondřej Macek discovered roughly half of Vivaldi's arias in a private archive in Regensburg in 2006 and reconstructed the opera from them; a further early Viennese version came to light in 2008, and an additional pasticcio manuscript in Darmstadt in 2011. For the aria "Gelido in ogni vena," Vivaldi reused music from his concerto "L'inverno."