About the work
Didone abbandonata is Giuseppe Sarti's second setting of the same Metastasio libretto he had already composed in Copenhagen in 1762. This version was written for the Fiera del Santo, Padua's traditional summer opera season, and premiered on 12 June 1782 at the Teatro Nuovo. Further performances followed, including one at Esterházy Palace in 1784 and one in Madrid in 1792.
Plot
As in 1762, Sarti sets Metastasio's Dido story after Virgil's Aeneid: the Trojan Enea must leave Didone, Queen of Carthage, to found Rome; the Moorish king Jarba exploits her despair for his own plans of revenge and conquest. In the end Didone sees no way out as the city burns.
Cultural significance
Composers resetting the same libretto decades apart was common in the 18th century: Metastasio's text, with more than 60 settings, ranks among the most frequently performed opera texts of its time. The 1792 Madrid performance is documented by a surviving bilingual libretto.