L'impresario delle Isole Canarie

[1] The role of Dorina was first sung by the contralto Santa Marchesini, and Nibbio by the basso buffo singer Gioacchino Corrado.

Dorina hopes to get rid of Nibbio by listing preposterous demands for her contract (always leading roles of Prima Donna, librettos written by friends, a permanent supply of ice cream, coffee, chocolate and at least two presents weekly).

Inspired possibly by Girolamo Gigli's La Dirindina (1715) and certainly by the composer Benedetto Marcello's tirade against the failing standards of operatic art in his Teatro alla Moda (1720),[4][5] Metastasio takes the theme of opera performance one step further.

Dorina complains about awful 'modern' composers that are only interested in ornamentation; Nibbio utters his belief that texts are not important, because an audience 'has lots to catch up on' during the performance, and could not care less about meaning.

[7] Metastasio's text became wildly popular and was also composed by Tomaso Albinoni in 1725,[8][9] Chiocchetti in 1726, Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, Leonardo Leo in 1741 and Giovanni Battista Martini in 1744.

[12] L'impresario delle Isole Canarie may have been Metastasio's single venture into comic opera, but it had far reaching influence.

[14][15] The Italian composer Lucia Ronchetti wrote from 2012 until 2014 three works based on this libretto combined with Metastasio's letters and text from his Didone abbandonata.

[17] [18] Eytan Pessen in his article about this work in his edition for the Semperoper Dresden accepts the doubtfulness of this attribution, but notes that "the tight and clear dramaturgy and dramatic economy of the piece are consistent with Metastasio's writing, and of a higher level than the usual farcical libretto of other contemporary intermezzos.