About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Florian Leopold Gassmann, setting Pietro Metastasio's libretto; it premiered during the 1758 carnival season at the Teatro San Moisè in Venice, one of some 30 settings of a text first composed by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti for the Vienna court theatre in 1732.
Plot
On the mythical island of Lemnos, the women abandoned by their husbands have sworn to kill any man who returns. When King Thoas comes back after years away, his daughter Issipile secretly saves him instead of obeying her stepmother Eurinome's oath of vengeance. Issipile loves the Argonaut leader Giasone, but is also pursued by Eurinome's son Learco, who attempts to abduct her; in the end, filial duty triumphs over her own passion.
Cultural significance
In a plot that places filial duty above romantic passion, Metastasio's text became one of the most popular opera seria subjects, reaching roughly 30 settings. Gassmann's 1758 Venetian version belongs to his early years as house composer for the Teatro San Moisè, for which he supplied a new carnival opera for several years running.