La Salustia is a 1732 opera (dramma per musica) in three acts by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a revised text, possibly by Sebastiano Morelli, after Apostolo Zeno's famous 1716 libretto Alessandro Severo, which was also later adapted by Handel.

[1] The production was marred when the leading man Nicolo Grimaldi "Nicolini" fell fatally ill before the performance and an inexperienced substitute Gioacchino Conti "Gizziello" had to be called in at the last minute.

[2] The first important commission Pergolesi received on leaving the school was linked to this religious order and on 19 March 1731 his oratorio La fenice sul rogo, o vero La morte di San Giuseppe [it] ["The Phoenix on the Pyre, or The Death of Saint Joseph"] was performed in the atrium of the church today known as the Chiesa dei Girolamini, the home of the Congregazione di San Giuseppe.

"The following summer Pergolesi was asked to set to music, as the final exercise of his studies, a dramma sacro in three acts by Ignazio Mancini, Li prodigi della divina grazia nella conversione e morte di san Guglielmo duca d’Aquitania ["The Miracles of Divine Grace in the Conversion and Death of Saint William, Duke of Aquitaine"].

It was decided to use a reworking of a libretto by Apostolo Zeno, Alessandro Severo, written about 15 years earlier, now renamed after another leading character as La Salustia.

The author of the revision is unknown, even if some sources are inclined to give the credit to a certain Sebastiano Morelli, an otherwise obscure figure, who wrote the dedication to the wife of the Viceroy of Naples contained in the printed libretto.

The leading singer in the company of San Bartolomeo was the contralto Nicolò Grimaldi, known as "Cavalier Nicolino", a true star of the international operatic stage.

The almost sixty-year-old Nicolino, perhaps because he was no longer able to cope with the vocal acrobatics demanded by the part of primo amoroso, perhaps simply because he was now tired of playing the role of the "young hero" in which he risked looking ridiculous, had already shown himself willing to compromise regarding his position.

At the premiere of Artaserse by Johann Adolf Hasse in 1730, for example, he had handed over the rank of primo amoroso to the rising star Farinelli and had instead accepted the part of the villainous father Artabano, a typical tenor role.

The text was probably supplied by a certain Domenico Caracajus, who was also employed, according to Hucke and Monson, to provide the music for the recitatives in the second part of the intermezzo,[17] which suggests that the time available for composing La Salustia was fairly limited.

We do not know the precise details of the events, but while the rehearsals were probably underway, or at least scheduled, on 1 January 1732 (the timing suggests a brief illness) "Cavalier Nicolino" suddenly died, forcing the theatre management and Pergolesi to take emergency measures.

His arrival upset the casting: the eccentricity of entrusting the role of a wicked father to a castrato, even though it might have been feasible with a tried and tested singer in his sixties, became unacceptable in the hands of a novice who was under 18, so it was decided to make some face-saving alterations.

The part of Marziano was handed to the tenor Tolve while Giziello took over the less demanding role of Claudio, thus reverting to the standard company casting but forcing Pergolesi to revise his score at the last minute.

[19] The opera was staged with the revisions and the new cast, probably in the second half of January 1732 and only enjoyed a short run before it was replaced by Francesco Mancini's Alessandro nell'Indie, scheduled for 2 February.

This is a list of the instrumentation used in the score of La Salustia:[24] Background: The 13-year-old Alessandro Severo (Alexander Severus) had become Roman emperor after the murder of his uncle Elagabalus.