About the work
Domenico Cimarosa set Pietro Metastasio's 1752 libretto „L'eroe cinese“ in 1782. His version premiered on 13 August 1782 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, for the name day of Queen Maria Carolina.
Plot
In the Chinese city of Singana, the regent Leango hides a twenty-year-old secret: young Siveno is actually the rightful heir, saved during a royal murder, while Leango had his own son's body substituted for the murdered prince's. When his foster son Minteo is identified by a scar as Leango's true biological son, the succession is settled: Siveno takes the throne, and Minteo marries princess Ulania.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's text about the Chinese succession later inspired Voltaire's 1755 drama „L'Orphelin de la Chine“ and was also set by Johann Adolf Hasse and Antonio Sacchini besides Cimarosa. Cimarosa wrote his version for the grand court theatre San Carlo, placing it in the serious courtly repertoire rather than among his many comic operas of those years.