About the work
Æneas i Carthago is an opera in a prologue and five acts by Joseph Martin Kraus to a libretto by Johan Henrik Kellgren, based on a sketch by King Gustav III. Kraus spent roughly a decade on the work without ever seeing it staged; it finally premiered on 18 November 1799, seven years after his death, at the Royal Opera in Stockholm.
Plot
After the fall of Troy, Æneas and his fleet reach Carthage, where Queen Dido takes him in and falls in love with him. The opera centres on Æneas's inner conflict between his love for Dido and the duty imposed on him by the gods to sail on to Italy and found Rome.
Cultural significance
Having met Christoph Willibald Gluck in person during the European study tour Gustav III financed for him, Kraus modelled his largest stage work, lasting close to five hours uncut, audibly on Gluck's reform operas. Æneas i Carthago is regarded as the key work for understanding the composer later dubbed the "Swedish Mozart."