[11] Summary: The plot revolves around two rural maids, Guidalba the worldly daughter of the village's head Shepherd, Cestone (Basket) and his ward and niece, Despina.

Mosel, Salieri's first biographer and the main source for primary information about the composer, praised this short and early work; writing of the libretto, he wrote, "this operetta is distinguished by its simple but attractive plot and the naivete of the language.

He attributed its use to concessions made to please the lead soprano, Clementina Baglioni,[3] however Braunbehrens sees it as a both within the character of Despina, as a woman who is noble at heart, and perhaps as a naive attempt at local color: yodeling as coloratura,[14] similar to its use 70 years later in Donizetti's La fille du régiment which is also set in the Alps.

"[16] An opposing view of this small work was held by Goethe; in a letter to Charlotte von Stein, dated 5 November 1785, he praised a performance of the opera, calling it charming and recommended that they go together to see it.

Building on his experience from his first staged opera Le donne letterate, in L'amore Salieri greatly expanded the harmonic and orchestral role of the viola.

Mosel further remarks that the composer also used a more active harmonic bass line, and greatly improved his use of modulation within individual numbers of this opera.

[3][14] There is no known studio recording of the complete opera; however, The Salieri Album, (Cecilia Bartoli with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Ádám Fischer, Decca 475 100–2) has one related excerpt: