About the work
Zenobia is a three-act opera seria by Johann Adolph Hasse on Pietro Metastasio's libretto of the same name, itself drawn from Tacitus's Annals (Book XII) and first set to music by Giovanni Bononcini for its 1737 Vienna premiere. Hasse's own setting was first performed during the 1761 carnival season at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and later that year, on 7 October, also at the Royal Opera House in Warsaw.
Plot
The action unfolds in ancient Armenia on the banks of the Araxes. Zenobia, daughter of the Armenian king, is betrothed to the Parthian prince Tiridates but has secretly married the Iberian prince Radamisto. When political intrigue casts suspicion of murder on Radamisto, the couple attempts to flee; in despair, he stabs them both and throws Zenobia into the river, though each survives separately. When Tiridates arrives to claim his bride, the tangled plot around the false friend Zopiro only resolves once the truth about the original conspiracy comes to light, allowing reconciliation.
Cultural significance
Metastasio's text, with around thirty settings between 1737 and 1800, was one of the most frequently used opera librettos of the eighteenth century; Hasse's version thus joined a long line of rival treatments of the same story.