About the work
Cublai, gran kan de' Tartari is a dramma eroicomico in two acts by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti, developed from Casti's satirical 'Poema Tartaro' about the court of Catherine the Great. Salieri composed the opera between 1786 and 1788, but Habsburg censorship banned any performance for political reasons during the authors' lifetimes.
Plot
The aged Khan Cublai wants to marry his simple-minded son Lipi to Princess Alzima, who refuses; amid European guests and the scheming of the ambitious tutor Posega, Cublai's nephew Timur ultimately wins Alzima's hand and the succession, while Lipi is content with his toy soldiers.
Cultural significance
The work received its world premiere only 210 years after its composition, in June 1998 at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg in a German translation, with Diana Damrau in the virtuosic role of Alzima. The Italian original was not staged until 2024, at Theater an der Wien, where the production won the International Opera Award for Rediscovery.