About the work
Commedia per musica in two acts by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giovanni De Gamerra, first performed on 7 August 1796 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Plot
Across two inns near Livorno, a comic tangle unfolds around the Moor Azzan Agù, who goes by the name Orlando, and the young Stella – a mistaken-identity romantic intrigue typical of Salieri's Viennese buffo operas.
Cultural significance
After 21 performances in Vienna within a year, the work quickly spread across Europe, reaching Dresden (1797), St Petersburg (1798), Florence (1804), and Livorno, Rome and Bologna (1805). Musically, contemporaries described the score as combining 'Mozartian charm' with parodic nods to opera seria, deploying orchestral colour – including a solo cello – with unusual versatility.