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Artaserse

Music by Josef Mysliveček · libretto by Pietro Metastasio · premiered 1774 · at Teatro di San Carlo

Artaserse is an opera in three acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček, set to a popular libretto (or dramma per musica) by Metastasio that was originally performed in 1730. It was customary to alter the Metastasian text considerably for operas in the 1770s, but this one mainly adheres to the original Metastasian text, albeit with the placement of some scenes re-arranged and some scenes omitted.

All of Mysliveček's operas are of the serious type in Italian referred to as opera seria.

Text from the Wikipedia article "Artaserse (Mysliveček)", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the Composer

Josef Mysliveček (9 March 1737 – 4 February 1781) was a Czech composer. He contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. Mysliveček provided his younger friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with significant compositional models in the genres of symphony, Italian serious opera, and violin concerto; both Wolfgang and his father Leopold Mozart considered him an intimate friend from the time of their first meetings in Bologna in 1770 until he betrayed their trust over the promise of an operatic commission for Wolfgang to be arranged with the management of the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. His closeness to the Mozart family resulted in frequent references to him in the…

Text from the Wikipedia article "Josef Mysliveček", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Other Operas by Josef Mysliveček