About the work
Semiramide is an opera seria by Antonio Salieri, set to Pietro Metastasio's 1729 libretto 'Semiramide riconosciuta'. Written for the Munich carnival season, it premiered on 14 January 1782 at the Residenztheater in Munich.
Plot
After secretly causing the death of her husband Nimrod, Queen Semiramide conceals his death, passes herself off as him, and rules disguised as a man — all while secretly in love with Prince Scitalce — until her true identity is finally revealed.
Cultural significance
Salieri composed the work a year after Mozart's Munich 'Idomeneo' for the same house; the title role was sung by Elisabeth Wendling, the same soprano who had created Elettra in Mozart's opera. Musicological studies regard Salieri's setting as marking the end of the long tradition of composers returning to Metastasio's half-century-old libretto.