About the work
La grotta di Trofonio is an opera comica in two acts by Antonio Salieri to a libretto by Giovanni Battista Casti. It premiered at the Vienna Burgtheater on 12 October 1785; the work was one of Salieri's greatest stage successes and the first comic opera ever to have its score fully engraved.
Plot
The magician Trofonio's cave transforms the temperaments of two pairs of lovers: the earnest couple Ofelia and Artemidoro become carefree and flighty, while the pleasure-loving couple Dori and Plistene turn serious and brooding. Only once the spell is undone do the couples return to their original, well-matched natures.
Cultural significance
With 26 performances in its first two years — eighteen more than Mozart's recently premiered Figaro — and some thirty productions across Europe from Germany to Portugal, the work ranked among the greatest stage successes of its time. Its premise of two couples with swapped temperaments is thought to have influenced Da Ponte's libretto for Mozart's Così fan tutte.