About the work
Azione teatrale in two acts by Tommaso Traetta after Pietro Metastasio's libretto, first performed on 27 July 1765 at the Teatro Regio Ducale Nuovo in Mantua. Traetta's setting predates the now best-known version by Joseph Haydn (1779) by fourteen years and is one of around 40 settings of the text.
Plot
A storm strands the married couple Gernando and Costanza, along with Costanza's younger sister Silvia, on an uninhabited island. Gernando is carried off by pirates and not freed until thirteen years later; left behind, Costanza believes herself abandoned and raises Silvia, who grew up on the island, to distrust men. Gernando's return leads to the couple's reconciliation, while Silvia falls in love with his companion Enrico.
Cultural significance
After its Mantua premiere, Traetta's setting was staged again in Bologna in 1768 and in Copenhagen in 1772. It is among the earlier settings of Metastasio's intimate two-act text, which became one of the better-known works of its kind only through Haydn's later score.