About the work
Pastorale per musica in two acts by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giovanni Gastone Boccherini, first performed during Carnival 1770 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, followed by a 1772 performance at the Kleines Hoftheater in Dresden.
Plot
Set in the Tyrolean mountain village of Clausen, the plot follows the innocent love between the shepherd couple Despino and Despina, who must assert themselves against social pretension and the scheming of other villagers such as the shepherd Cestone – a pastoral play in the style of contemporary shepherd operas.
Cultural significance
As one of Salieri's earliest stage works, 'L'amore innocente' shows the composer, then only nineteen, still working within the sentimental pastoral tradition, before he made his name with the buffo operas of the 1770s. After long neglect, the work saw modern revivals in Merano (1997), Legnago (2000) and Landsberg am Lech (2002).