About the work
Enrico Leone (Henrico Leone) is an opera in three acts by Agostino Steffani, with an Italian libretto by the Hanover court poet Ortensio Mauro. It premiered on 30 January 1689 to inaugurate the new opera house in Hanover's Leine Palace and was meant to legitimise Duke Ernst August's rule through its reference to his famous ancestor Henry the Lion.
Plot
The plot follows Prince Enrico on his perilous return from the Holy Land, while his wife Metilda must fend off insistent suitors and stay faithful at home. A ghostly apparition conjured through magic adds further dramatic tension before the couple is finally reunited.
Cultural significance
With elaborate stage designs by Johann Oswald Harms and leading Italian singers, the opera set a benchmark for courtly music theatre of its time; it was restaged in the following decades in cities such as Hamburg and Brunswick, and revived again in 1989 for the 300th anniversary of Hanover's opera house.