About the work
Semiramide riconosciuta is an opera seria by Christoph Willibald Gluck to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio. It premiered on 14 May 1748 at the Burgtheater in Vienna — Gluck's first work for the Viennese court stage.
Plot
The Assyrian queen Semiramis rules disguised as her own son Nino, believed still alive. When princes come to woo the Bactrian princess Tamiri, Semiramis's former lover is unknowingly among them. Deception and an assassination attempt eventually lead to the revelation of Semiramis's true identity and the confirmation of her rule.
Cultural significance
The work dates from the start of Gluck's career, long before his reform operas such as 'Orfeo ed Euridice' (1762), and is one of roughly forty 18th-century settings of Metastasio's libretto.