Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126, is a dramatic serenade in one act (azione teatrale) composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, which is based on the book Somnium Scipionis by Cicero; Metastasio's libretto [de] has been set to music several times.

[2] In January 1979, Il sogno di Scipione was exhumed for Mozart Week in Salzburg, where it was given a complete performance.

The participants – Peter Schreier (Scipio), Lucia Popp (Costanza), Edita Gruberová (Fortuna), Claes-Håkan Ahnsjö (Publio), Thomas Moser (Emilio) and Edith Mathis (Licenza), with the Salzburger Kammerchor and Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg under Leopold Hager – then made the work's first recording, issued originally on a Deutsche Grammophon LP and reissued on CD in 1991 in the Philips Complete Mozart Edition.

In 2001, Gotham Chamber Opera presented the U.S. stage premiere of Il sogno di Scipione at the Abrons Arts Center in New York City and presented a revival of the work in April 2012 at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater in New York City as part of their tenth anniversary program.

[3][4] Judith Weir's 1991 chamber opera, Scipio's Dream, is based on Il sogno di Scipione with an adaptation of the original Metastasio libretto and a re-composition of the score[5] which was cut to around one fifth of its length; it was recorded and broadcast by the BBC in a performance by Vocem and Endymion, conducted by Andrew Parrott, directed by Margaret Williams.

Constanza replies that the power behind it moves the spheres like strings on a zither, finely tuned by hand and ear.

Constanza explains that this is due to the inadequacy of their senses; looking at the sun, they see only the glare, whilst hearing a waterfall, they know nothing of its destructive power.

His father Emilio tells him that joy in heaven is complete, because it is not accompanied by suffering; he points to the Earth, small and miserable and covered in cloud, the home of mad misguided people, indifferent to other's pain.

However, he is told by Publius that he has a great mission to complete on Earth – to destroy an enemy, after making his choice between Constanza and Fortuna.