About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, written under his Arcadian pseudonym Artino Corasio; first performed on 27 January 1727 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples. The cast brought together celebrated singers of the day, including the castrati Gaetano Berenstadt and Carlo Scalzi and the widely admired Marianna Benti Bulgarelli.
Plot
In the city of Seleucia, Prince Siroe loves Princess Emira, who is disguised as a man and seeking revenge on the Persian king Cosroe for killing her father. Cosroe himself favours Siroe's younger half-brother Medarse as his heir and suspects Siroe of plotting against him, while Princess Laodice is torn between her love for Siroe and the king's advances. After numerous complications involving intrigue, false accusations and uncovered conspiracies, Siroe's integrity ultimately prevails and he ascends the throne.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's libretto was among the most frequently set texts of the 18th century; in the years following Sarro's Neapolitan version alone, it was set again by Leonardo Vinci, Nicola Porpora, George Frideric Handel and Johann Adolph Hasse. The lavish sets, designed by a pupil of the Bibiena family of theatre architects, reflect the ambition behind opera productions at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in the 1720s.