About the work
Il Vologeso is an opera seria by Niccolò Jommelli, set to a libretto adapted by Mattia Verazi. It premiered in 1766 for the birthday of Duke Karl Eugen of Württemberg at the court theatre in Ludwigsburg. Verazi reworked an earlier revision by Guido Luccarelli of Apostolo Zeno's libretto Lucio Vero, first set in 1699 in Venice; Jommelli himself had already composed an earlier setting of the material in 1754.
Plot
The action unfolds around 164 AD in Ephesus: the Roman general and emperor Lucio Vero holds the Armenian queen Berenice captive and courts her despite his betrothal to Lucilla, daughter of his co-emperor Marcus Aurelius. Berenice, however, stays faithful to Vologeso, the Parthian king she believed dead, who has entered the court in disguise. A poisoning attempt, an arrest and the threat of civil war drive the plot toward its climax before the couples are reunited without bloodshed.
Cultural significance
The opera is regarded as an example of Jommelli's mature style shaped by Verazi: ornate spectacle gives way to a more declamatory, immediate tone with arioso-like arias. After its premiere the work was also given in Lisbon in 1769; in 2015 it returned to the Stuttgart stage as Berenike, Königin von Armenien, and it was performed in concert in London in 2016. Recordings under Frieder Bernius (1998) and Gabriele Ferro (2018), as well as one by The Mozartists, document the work's modern rediscovery.