About the work
Didone abbandonata is an opera seria by Giovanni Paisiello to Pietro Metastasio's first libretto (1724), telling of the tragic love between the Carthaginian queen Dido and the Trojan exile Aeneas after Virgil's 'Aeneid'. It premiered on 4 November 1794 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, on the occasion of the name day of King Charles IV of Spain, whose house was dynastically linked to the Neapolitan royal family.
Plot
Dido and Aeneas love each other, but Aeneas must obey his divine mission and sail on to Italy to found Rome. When he leaves her despite her pleas, the despairing Dido throws herself into the flames of her burning city. The Numidian king Iarbas, who secretly desires Dido, had earlier appeared at Carthage disguised as an envoy.
Cultural significance
With more than 70 settings, Metastasio's debut libretto is one of the most frequently set works in opera history; Paisiello's late 1794 version dates from near the end of his most productive Naples years as court composer to Ferdinand IV, shortly before the political upheaval of the 1799 Neapolitan Republic shook his career.