About the work
Opera seria in two acts by Dmitri Bortniansky to a libretto by Marco Coltellini based on Sophocles's "Antigone". It premiered on 26 November 1776 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice — Bortniansky's first opera, written during his study trip to Italy with Baldassare Galuppi, funded by Catherine II.
Plot
After the feuding sons of the Theban royal house kill each other, Creon takes the throne and orders only one brother buried, leaving the other unburied. Antigone defies the decree, secretly buries her brother Polyneices, and is condemned to die sealed in a cave; Creon's own son Haemon, who loves Antigone, attempts in vain to save her. Unlike in Sophocles, the opera ends in reconciliation: a popular uprising forces Antigone's release, and peace is restored to Thebes.
Cultural significance
After its premiere the score was considered lost for almost 250 years, until the musicologist Olha Shumilina rediscovered it at the Biblioteca da Ajuda in Lisbon; the work is now being reconstructed and revived through international cooperation projects.