About the work
Dramma per musica in a prologue and three acts by Francesco Cavalli to a libretto by Nicolò Minato. It premiered on 10 January 1657 (still 1656 by the Venetian calendar) at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice.
Plot
After the death of her husband Mausolo, Queen Artemisia of Caria has vowed to marry whoever killed him, and unknowingly falls in love with the disguised commoner Meraspe, in reality a prince who killed Mausolo unintentionally in a duel. Unable to reveal himself as either the killer or her admirer, Meraspe sets off a chain of misunderstandings that is resolved only when the true identities come to light and three couples are united.
Cultural significance
At its centre is a ruler forced by the constraints of her office to conceal her true feelings, who ultimately regains her personal freedom, an unusually psychological portrait for Venetian opera of the period. The work was restaged in several European cities from Naples to Vienna and inspired later settings of the same subject, including one by Alessandro Scarlatti.