Didone abbandonata

libretto by Pietro Metastasio

Didone abbandonata is an opera libretto in three acts, or parts, by Pietro Metastasio. It was his first work that was fully new and not built upon a past work. It was set to music by Domenico Sarro in 1724. The opera was played with an intermezzo in between each act. The intermezzo was named L'impresario delle Isole Canarie, also made by Metastasio.

Didone abbandonata, act 1, scene 5; Francesco Battaglioli (1754)

During the 100 years after Metastasio wrote the opera, it was set to music more than 50 times by other composers such as Nicola Porpora (1725), Leonardo Vinci (1726), Baldassare Galuppi (1740), Johann Adolph Hasse (1742), Niccolò Jommelli (1747), Tommaso Traetta (1757), Giuseppe Sarti (1762), Niccolò Piccinni (1770), Saverio Mercadante (1823).

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