About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, first performed on 4 November 1741 at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples – like 'Achille in Sciro' in 1737, timed to the name day of King Charles VII of Naples. The soprano Giovanna Astrua was among the cast at the premiere.
Plot
The Roman general Aetius returns victorious from battle against Attila and loves Fulvia, daughter of the patrician Maximus, whom the emperor Valentinian had once humiliated. Seeking revenge, Maximus incites a plot against the emperor while pinning the blame on Aetius, even as the emperor himself has designs on Fulvia. Only when Maximus's true role comes to light does the emperor save the wrongly suspected Aetius, pardon those involved, and drop his opposition to Aetius's union with Fulvia.
Cultural significance
Ezio was written shortly before Sarro's death in 1744 and numbers among his last stage works for the Teatro di San Carlo, whose opening opera he had supplied seven years earlier with 'Achille in Sciro'. Metastasio's text was set by around 50 composers; in the 20th and 21st centuries it is chiefly Handel's and Gluck's versions that have remained in the repertoire, while Sarro's setting has been largely forgotten.