About the work
Nitteti is an opera seria in three acts by Josef Mysliveček, based on Pietro Metastasio's libretto that had premiered in Madrid in 1756 and drew on accounts by Herodotus and Diodorus about the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis II. Mysliveček's own setting was first performed on 29 April 1770 at the Teatro Comunale (then known as the Nuovo Pubblico Teatro) in Bologna.
Plot
Pharaoh Amasi is bound by an oath to the dying king Aprio to marry his son Sammete to Princess Nitteti, but Sammete loves the supposed shepherdess Beroe. Only late in the drama is it revealed that Beroe is in fact Nitteti, Amasi's daughter believed dead — fulfilling the oath and clearing the way for a second marriage as well.
Cultural significance
The premiere was a success, and the score is unusual for containing more substitute aria texts diverging from Metastasio's original than any other Mysliveček setting. That same summer in Bologna, the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then composing his own opera Mitridate, is documented to have studied Mysliveček's score of Nitteti closely.