About the work
Demofoonte is an opera seria by Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli, set to Pietro Metastasio's libretto, which was set to music more than 70 times during the eighteenth century. It premiered in 1789 in Trieste; on 25 November 1795 the opera was also given at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
Plot
According to an oracle, a king must sacrifice a virgin every year to spare his realm from disaster. Entangled relationships, secret marriages and hidden parentage lead to a chain of mistaken identities, until the true family ties are revealed and the plot resolves in reconciliation.
Cultural significance
Zingarelli's setting was one of well over 70 versions of Metastasio's text, and its performance in Venice six years after the Trieste premiere carried it beyond the Adriatic.