[2] The first Italian staging of La Dori was in Florence in 1661 for the wedding of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Following its premiere at the court theatre of Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria in Innsbruck in 1657, La Dori was brought to Italy and performed in Florence in June 1661 as part of the festivities celebrating the wedding of Cosimo III de' Medici, the future Grand Duke of Tuscany, to Marguerite Louise d'Orléans.

[4][5][b] There are no known copies of the original libretto, although in the 20th century a scenario in German (Doris Die Glükkhafte leibeigne Dienerin)[c] which had been printed for the Innsbruck performance was found in a Stuttgart library by the Italian musicologist Lorenzo Bianconi.

On those occasions, the opera was adapted to suit Venetian taste as well as the strengths of the star singers, with fairly extensive cuts (particularly to the recitatives), the addition of new arias, and the expansion of some comic scenes.

In his review of the performance Stanley Sadie singled out for particular praise the laments and amorous languishing arias of the lovers, the music for the comic scenes between the servants, and above all the duets: Cesti well knew how to exploit the sensuous effect of two high voices intertwining.

[7]Sadie also noted that the programme had contained neither a synopsis nor an annotated cast list, and the audience was utterly perplexed by the convoluted plot with its multiple disguises and mistaken identities.

Further productions were staged in 1990 at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, where the New York Times critic Bernard Holland was equally perplexed by the plot, and in 1999 at the Cittadella Musicale in Arezzo[8][9] A production for the 2019 Innsbruck Early Music Festival directed by Stefano Vizioli and conducted by Ottavio Dantone was subsequently issued on both CD and DVD.

The manuscript held in the Austrian National Library appears to be the closest to 1661 Florence libretto in terms of the text of the opera itself, although it has a different prologue and an additional epilogue.

When the Egyptian Dori is accidentally killed as a small child, her tutor Arsete flees Egypt and joins a band of pirates.

However, Oronte's dying father recalls him to Persia and tells him that he cannot marry an Egyptian princess and instead must fulfill the contract with King Archelao.

With both, his son and daughter missing, the King Of Egypt sends Dori's old tutor Arsete to Babylon to find them and bring them home.

These include Erasto falling in love with "Celinda" (Tolomeo), Oronte being deposed from his future throne for ultimately refusing to marry Arsinoe, and "Ali" (Dori) attempting suicide.

Interspersed with these scenes are lengthy comic exchanges between Dirce, Oronte's old nurse, and Golo, his buffoonish servant, as well as tirades about the mannish and immoral behaviour of "Celinda" from Bagoa, the eunuch who guards the seraglio.

In the end, Dori's suicide is foiled by Dirce who hate to see such a handsome "boy" die, substitutes a sleeping potion for the poison she intends to take.

For some inexplicable reason, despite having been kidnapped as a small child, raised as an Egyptian princess, nearly drowned years later and then sold into slavery, Dori still had on her person the original marriage contract from Nicea.

The opera ends with a quartet of the two couples singing: After a thousand troubles, a river of tears gives way to a sea of joy[1][e]A complete recording was made of the production at Innsbruck in 2019, released on CD in 2020 on CPO and on DVD in 2021 on Naxos; the cast includes Emőke Baráth (as Tolomeo/Celinda), Francesca Ascioti (as Dori/Ali), Rupert Enticknap (Oronte), Federico Sacchi (Artaserse), Francesca Lombardi Mazzuli (Arsinoe), Bradley Smith (Arsete), Pietro Di Bianco (Erasto), Alberto Allegrezza (Dirce), and the Accademia Bizantina conducted by Ottavio Dantone.