About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Tommaso Traetta after Apostolo Zeno's libretto in a version revised by Marco Coltellini, first performed on 17 November 1774 at the court theatre in Saint Petersburg near the end of Traetta's time as Catherine II's court composer. Zeno's text, with more than 50 settings between 1700 and the early nineteenth century, was one of the most frequently used opera librettos of its age.
Plot
Emperor Lucio Vero is betrothed to Lucilla but falls in love with the captive Armenian queen Berenice, who remains loyal to her defeated beloved, the Parthian king Vologeso. A prison uprising and further complications push the relationships to the brink of disaster. In the end Lucio Vero chooses clemency: he returns to Lucilla and grants Berenice and Vologeso their freedom.
Cultural significance
Traetta's Lucio Vero dates from his final months at the Russian court before his return to Venice and is among his last works written for Saint Petersburg. Compared with the many other settings of Zeno's libretto, it is little known today and rarely performed.