About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Florian Leopold Gassmann, setting Pietro Metastasio's libretto; it premiered on 18 January 1761 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, with a revised version following at carnival 1770 at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome.
Plot
The victorious general Ezio returns to Rome, where the patrician Massimo falsely accuses him of conspiring against Emperor Valentiniano, who is also his rival for Fulvia's hand. A failed assassination attempt and a popular uprising bring the city to the brink of collapse, until Ezio saves the emperor's life. Valentiniano acknowledges Ezio's innocence and loyalty and gives him Fulvia in marriage.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's text, drawing on the late antique accounts of Procopius and Prosper of Aquitaine, was set around 50 times, most famously by Handel and Gluck. Gassmann's 1761 Florence setting falls within a period of regular commissions for Italian stages outside Venice.