About the work
Semiramide is an opera seria in three acts by Josef Mysliveček, setting Pietro Metastasio's libretto 'Semiramide riconosciuta', which had premiered at the Teatro delle Dame in Rome in 1729 and tells the legend of the Assyrian queen Semiramis and the founding of Babylon. Mysliveček's own setting was written for the summer fair season in Bergamo in 1766.
Plot
After the death of her husband, King Nino, the Egyptian princess Semiramide rules Assyria in disguise under his name. During a bridal contest for Princess Tamiri, she encounters her former lover Idreno, now called Scitalce, and her brother Mirteo; intrigue and mistaken identities are finally resolved in recognition and reconciliation.
Cultural significance
Despite an unremarkable cast, the opera's success won Mysliveček the commission for Il Bellerofonte at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, launching his career as a sought-after opera composer in Italy. Individual arias, sometimes reused as sacred contrafacta, remained current in central Europe into the early 19th century.