About the work
Demofoonte is an opera seria in three acts by Baldassare Galuppi to Pietro Metastasio's libretto of the same name. It premiered on 18 December 1749 at the Teatro del Buen Retiro in Madrid, as part of the opera season directed there for the Spanish court by the castrato Farinelli.
Plot
Following an oracle's decree, King Demofoonte of Thrace has a virgin sacrificed each year, unaware that his son Timante has secretly married Dircea, who is now chosen as the next victim. Only late in the story is it revealed that Timante is in fact a substituted child and thus not the rightful heir, while Dircea is Demofoonte's own daughter. This resolution also ends the custom of sacrifice and allows the lovers to stay together.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's libretto, written around 1733, received more than seventy settings up to 1800, including by Caldara, Gluck and Hasse, making it one of the central subjects of opera seria. Galuppi's setting for Madrid shows how far the reach of Venetian opera production extended beyond Venice itself.