About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Baldassare Galuppi, setting Pietro Metastasio's libretto of the same name; it premiered on 11 June 1751 at the newly opened Teatro Nuovo in Padua. Galuppi had already set the text in Vienna in 1749 at the Burgtheater and substantially reworked the score for Padua, cutting several arias and replacing scenes with a newly composed quartet.
Plot
At the Persian court, the guard commander Artabano secretly murders King Serse and pins the killing on his son Dario in order to gain power for himself. The younger son Artaserse ascends the throne and, pressed by Artabano, condemns his own brother. Suspicion also falls on Artabano's son Arbace, Artaserse's closest friend, who had unknowingly taken up the bloodied sword. The truth emerges only moments before Arbace's execution, and Artabano is exposed.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's libretto, written some twenty years earlier, was set by well over ninety composers and ranks among the most frequently used opera texts of the eighteenth century. Galuppi's Padua version inaugurated a newly built theatre and was subsequently performed in numerous Italian cities through 1760, from Venice and Verona to Mantua and Ferrara.