About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts that Francesco Cavalli composed in 1667 to a libretto by Aurelio Aureli for the 1668 Venetian carnival season. Shortly before its planned premiere, however, the finished work was withdrawn and replaced by a new setting of the same subject by Giovanni Antonio Boretti; the opera's actual premiere did not take place until 27 November 1999, at the Teatro San Domenico in Crema, Cavalli's home town.
Plot
The young Roman emperor Eliogabalo abuses his power to interfere in the love lives of his generals Alessandro and Giuliano, claiming their fiancées for himself. While attempting to poison his rival Alessandro and rape his bride Gemmira, Eliogabalo is killed by his own soldiers.
Cultural significance
No documentary evidence explains why the finished work was withdrawn on short notice in 1668; suggested reasons include a composing style considered old-fashioned or unease over depicting the murder of an emperor. Cavalli himself later counted Eliogabalo among the operas he wished to pass on to posterity, and the autograph score entered Venice’s Biblioteca Marciana, though the work did not receive its actual stage premiere until 1999.