About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Tommaso Traetta after Pietro Metastasio's libretto 'Ezio', probably first performed in 1754 at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome. Traetta thus set one of the eighteenth century's most frequently used opera texts, which received around 50 settings in all, including the better-known versions by Handel and Gluck.
Plot
After his victory over Attila, the Roman general Ezio is suspected of plotting to murder Emperor Valentiniano III once the patrician Massimo stages an assassination attempt and pins the blame on him. Amid false accusations, wounded pride and the love between Ezio and Fulvia, intrigue engulfs the imperial court. In the end the conspiracy is exposed, emperor and general are reconciled, and Ezio is allowed to marry Fulvia.
Cultural significance
Traetta's setting has always stood in the shadow of the far better-known Ezio operas by Handel (1732) and Gluck (1750) and is rarely staged today. It dates from the years just before Traetta's appointment to Parma in 1758, where he became one of the leading figures of the Italian-French opera reform.