About the work
Opera seria in three acts by Niccolò Piccinni to Pietro Metastasio's libretto 'Artaserse', first performed on 3 February 1762 at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, followed by a revised version at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1768.
Plot
After the Persian king Serse is murdered by his guard commander Artabano, his elder son Dario is wrongly suspected of the crime and executed, and the younger son Artaserse ascends the throne. Artaserse must choose between his friendship with Arbace, son of the true murderer, and the demands of justice, while Mandane is torn between her love for Arbace and grief for her murdered father.
Cultural significance
With more than ninety settings, Metastasio's 'Artaserse' was his most frequently set libretto of all. That Piccinni reworked it again for Naples in 1768 shows how firmly the piece was anchored in the repertoire of Italy's major opera houses.