Nitocri is an opera (melodramma serio) in two acts composed by Saverio Mercadante to libretto by Apostolo Zeno adapted by Lodovico Piossasco Feys.
The libretto is a fictionalised account of the Egyptian queen Nitocris.
A second revised version was performed at the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan on 2 October 1830 with newly designed sets by Alessandro Sanquirico.
[2][3] Although the opera fell into oblivion, Mirteo's aria "Se m'abbandoni", sung at the premiere by Brigida Lorenzani en travesti, became a popular concert piece for contraltos and mezzo-sopranos and was sometimes interpolated into other operas, notably by Maria Malibran in the final scene of Zingarelli's Giulietta e Romeo.
However, the overture was recorded by the Orchestra Sinfonica Moldova for Mercadante: Sinfonie da Opere (Bongiovanni GB2144), and Mirteo's aria "Se m'abbandoni" sung by Della Jones appears on A Hundred Years of Italian Opera 1820–1830 (Opera Rara ORCH104)