About the work
Zanaida is an opera seria by Johann Christian Bach, set to a libretto by Giovanni Gualberto Bottarelli, who reworked Pietro Metastasio's "Siface, re di Numidia" and moved the action from North Africa to Persia. It was Bach's second opera for London and premiered on 7 May 1763 at the King's Theatre, Haymarket.
Plot
A political marriage between the Turkish princess Zanaida and the Persian king Tamasse is meant to secure peace between their realms. Tamasse instead falls in love with the ambassador's daughter Osira, has Zanaida imprisoned and condemned to death. Only Zanaida's forgiveness brings about a final reconciliation.
Cultural significance
Soprano Anna de Amicis had to repeat an aria at the audience's request, yet the opera ran for only five performances before the summer break. Long thought lost, the autograph score resurfaced in a private collection; today Zanaida is seen as an example of Bach's mediation between the galant style and Viennese Classicism.