Adriano in Siria by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Adriano in Siria is an opera by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi setting Metastasio's libretto of the same name. It was the third of his four opere serie, premiered at Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples on 25 October 1734. It has a historical subject. Adriano is the Italian name for the Roman emperor Hadrian. Pergolesi also provided a comic intermezzo La contadina astuta, later better known as Livietta e Tracollo, to a libretto by Tommaso Mariani. Pergolesi was only 24 years old when he began to work on Metastasio's libretto in 1734. The score is dedicated to the new monarch, but was written expressly to mark the 42nd birthday of the Queen of Spain, Elisabetta Farnese. He made many changes to Metastasio's original text, largely for the famous mezzo-soprano castrato, Gaetano Majorano, known as Caffarelli. Eventually no more than 10 arias were left to be set among the 27 originally written by Metastasio, the rest having been widely replaced by different texts.

Text from the Wikipedia article "Adriano in Siria (Pergolesi)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the Composer

Giovanni Battista Draghi (Italian: [dʒoˈvanni batˈtista ˈdraːɡi]; 4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736), usually referred to as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (Italian: [perɡoˈleːzi, -eːsi]), was an Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and organist, leading exponent of the Baroque; he is considered one of the greatest Italian musicians of the first half of the 18th century and one of the most important representatives of the Neapolitan school. Despite his short life and few years of activity (he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26), he managed to create works of high artistic value and historical importance, such as La serva padrona (The Maid Turned Mistress), which played an important role…

Text from the Wikipedia article "Giovanni Battista Pergolesi", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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