CALDARA, ANTONIO
Adriano in Siria (Hadrian in Syria) (Antonio Caldara)

  • Antonio Caldara. Dramma per musica in three acts. 1732.
  • Libretto by Pietro Metastasio.
  • First performance at the Hoftheater, Vienna, on 9th November 1732.

CHARACTERS

Adriano (Hadrian)tenor
Sabina, his betrothedsoprano
Emirena, a captive Parthian princesssoprano
Osroa (Osroes), her fathertenor
Farnaspe (Pharnaspes), her loveralto
Aquilio (Aquilius), confidant of Hadrianbass

The libretto by Metastasio, based on nominal references in Dio Cassius and other late Roman historians, deals with the love of the Emperor Hadrian for the captive princess Emirena, who is eventually reunited with her lover Pharnaspes when Hadrian returns to his betrothed, the Roman noblewoman Sabina. The plot is complicated by the activities of Aquilius, who loves Sabina, but all ends happily, in a mood of general forgiveness.

Caldara was the first composer to set Metastasio’s libretto in a version performed to celebrate the name-day of the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI, whom he served as deputy Kapellmeister.