About the work
Il trionfo di Clelia is an opera seria by Johann Adolph Hasse on Pietro Metastasio’s libretto about the Roman hostage Clelia during the Etruscan king Porsenna’s siege of Rome. It premiered on 27 April 1762 at the Vienna Burgtheater, marking the birth of a child to Archduchess Isabella of Parma.
Plot
Clelia is betrothed to the Roman envoy Orazio, while the ambitious Tarquinio also courts her and secretly conspires with the Etruscans. Her escape across the Tiber exposes Tarquinio’s treachery, while the secret love between Larissa and Mannio is also resolved.
Cultural significance
With around ten settings, the subject was one of the less frequently used among Metastasio’s librettos; Hasse’s Viennese version was nonetheless later staged again in Naples, Warsaw and Prague.