About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts that Antonio Vivaldi composed for the 1717 Carnival season at the Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice. The libretto by Adriano Morselli had already been written in 1686 for an opera by Domenico Freschi and was considered old-fashioned by Vivaldi's time, but was chosen for its unusually large number of characters and aria types.
Plot
After the death of the Persian king Ciro, three men vie for the hand of his daughter Statira and thus for the throne: the noble Dario, the popular favourite Oronte, and the military commander Arpago. Statira's younger sister Argene secretly loves Dario and tries to prevent his union with Statira through intrigue and ultimately a murder plot. When her scheming comes to light, Dario and Statira are crowned together.
Cultural significance
Thanks to its unusually large cast of characters and variety of aria types, the opera is considered one of the most varied in Vivaldi's output. After centuries of obscurity it received its first modern revivals from the 1970s onward, including a 2017 production at the Teatro Regio in Turin under Ottavio Dantone.