About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Caldara to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, first performed on 4 November 1736 at the Vienna Hoftheater for the nameday of Emperor Charles VI. Caldara's was the first setting of the text; the score additionally includes three ballets by Nicola Matteis the Younger.
Plot
The Athenian general Themistocles, banished from his homeland, has found refuge at the court of the Persian king Xerxes, once his enemy in war. When Xerxes demands that he lead an army against Greece, Themistocles is torn between gratitude to his host and loyalty to his homeland. He chooses Greece and attempts to take his own life — a gesture that so moves Xerxes that he makes peace with Greece instead.
Cultural significance
With around twenty-five known settings, the text achieved moderate popularity among Metastasio's librettos; a later version was performed to particular acclaim in Mannheim in 1772 under Johann Christian Bach. The autograph score of Caldara's premiere is held in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, and the work's sinfonia appeared in a modern edition in 2017.