About the work
Catone in Utica is an opera seria by Giovanni Paisiello to Pietro Metastasio's libretto (1728), which dramatises the conflict between the republican senator Cato and the victorious Caesar. Paisiello's setting — one of the last major settings among more than 30 of the same text — premiered on 5 February 1789 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, with the celebrated soprano Brigida Banti in one of the leading roles.
Plot
In Utica, the senator Cato defends the last remnants of the Roman republic against the victorious Caesar. His daughter Marzia secretly loves Caesar but is to marry the Numidian prince Arbace. After failed peace talks and fighting, Cato remains unyielding and, faced with the loss of Roman liberty, takes his own life; Caesar mourns his adversary.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's original ending, which showed Cato's death unfold across two scenes, met with audience resistance, so the poet had the death merely reported instead — the version Paisiello also set. The work was written almost 60 years after the libretto's premiere, near the close of opera seria's classical heyday.