About the work
Dramma per musica in three acts by Antonio Vivaldi to a libretto by Matteo Noris, first performed during the 1719 carnival season at the Teatro Arciducale in Mantua, where Vivaldi served as court composer and impresario. Noris had written the text as early as 1696 for an earlier setting, and Vivaldi deliberately returned to that older version.
Plot
The Roman consul Tito Manlio must condemn his own son to death for defying a decree of the Senate and engaging in single combat with the Latin commander Geminio. Only when the army intercedes on the young man's behalf is he pardoned, his courage acknowledged.
Cultural significance
The opera draws on an episode from Livy's "Ab urbe condita" and centres on the conflict between paternal duty and military honour. Vivaldi scored it with an unusual combination for opera seria, including sopranino recorder, trumpets and timpani, and kept the comic servant role of Lindo against convention; the production was given 36 times that carnival season and was later revived in Venice.