About the work
Il barone di Rocca Antica is a two-act intermezzo (comic opera) by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giuseppe Petrosellini. It premiered on 12 May 1772 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Plot
Baron Arsura is at the centre of a comedy of intrigue involving Beatrice, Giocondo and Lenina, in which romantic scheming plays off against social pretension.
Cultural significance
Petrosellini's libretto had already been set in 1771 by Carlo Franchi and Pasquale Anfossi; Salieri's version was written the same year as his success 'La secchia rapita'. The composer Johann Adolf Hasse spoke approvingly of the young, promising Salieri after the Vienna premiere, while Charles Burney judged the music more reservedly in his travel diaries.