Adriano in Siria

Adriano in Siria (Hadrian in Syria) is a libretto by Italian poet Metastasio first performed, with music by Antonio Caldara, in Vienna in 1732, and turned into an opera by at least 60 other composers during the next century.

[1][2] Metastasio based the background of the story on late Classical works by Cassius Dio (Book 19 of the Roman History) and Elio Sparziano (Vita Hadriani Caesaris).

In the yet again altered version of 1735 by Francesco Maria Veracini, written for the short-lived but ambitious Opera of the Nobility in London, the same role was sung by Farinelli, joined in an all-star cast by Senesino, Francesca Cuzzoni and Antonio Montagnana (Burden 2007, 31).

In 1768–69, Ignaz Holzbauer also composed an opera based on the libretto by Metastasio, this time to be performed at the royal wedding between Amalie of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Frederick Augustus I of Saxony on 29 January 1769.

[8] Set in Antioch against the historic background of the time the future Roman Emperor Hadrian spent as Governor of Syria, it tells a fictional love story, where the virtue of Adriano is tested by his infatuation with Emirena, a Parthian princess, both before and after his marriage to Sabina.