About the work
Il Sant'Alessio is an opera in three acts by Stefano Landi to a libretto by Giulio Rospigliosi, the future Pope Clement IX. It was composed in 1631 on commission from the Barberini family and premiered in February 1632 at the new Palazzo Barberini in Rome. The work is considered the first opera on a historical subject.
Plot
The Roman nobleman Alessio leaves his bride on their wedding day to live as a beggar in the Holy Land. Years later he returns unrecognised to his parents' house and lives there, unseen by his own family, under the staircase – until his identity and sanctity are discovered only after his death.
Cultural significance
With Il Sant'Alessio, Landi was among the first to combine serious inner character development with comic everyday scenes, and used independent instrumental sinfonias as preludes and interludes – an important step in early opera history. The French traveller Jean-Jacques Bouchard described a 1632 performance in one of the most detailed surviving eyewitness accounts of early Roman opera.