About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts that Antonio Vivaldi composed in 1723 for Rome's Teatro Capranica – his first opera for that city. It is based on a libretto originally written in 1678 by Giacomo Francesco Bussani and reworked for Vivaldi, dealing with Hercules's ninth labour against the Amazons. Because a papal edict barred women from Roman stages, castrati sang all the female roles at the premiere.
Plot
Hercules and a company of Greek warriors march against the Amazon queen Antiope on the river Thermodon to seize her girdle. During the fighting, Theseus falls in love with Antiope's sister Ippolita, and the warrior Alceste with her daughter Martesia; only the intervention of the goddess Diana resolves the conflicts between wrath and love, uniting the couples.
Cultural significance
The opera was performed some 30 times at its premiere but then fell into obscurity for almost 300 years, its complete score long thought lost. Only after roughly 30 arias and two duets scattered across various archives were brought together and reconstructed by Alessandro Ciccolini did the work become performable again from 2006/07 onward.