Il pomo d'oro (The Golden Apple) is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611-1668).

It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed open-air theatre Vienna in 1668.

The designer Ludovico Ottavio Burnacini provided no fewer than 24 sets and there were plenty of opportunities for spectacular stage machinery, including shipwrecks and collapsing towers.

The gods ask the Trojan prince Paris to decide which of the goddesses Venus, Juno and Pallas (Minerva) is the most beautiful and thus deserving of the Golden Apple of Discord.

The spurned goddesses try to get their revenge until Jupiter decides to end the confusion, turns to the audience and awards the golden apple to the Empress Margaret Theresa.