Pyrrhus and Demetrius

Pyrrhus and Demetrius was a 1708 adaptation for the London stage of the 1694 opera Il Pirro e Demetrio by Alessandro Scarlatti with a libretto by Adriano Morselli, first performed at the Teatro San Bartolomeo.

[6] In January 1709 Walsh, Randall, and Hare printed the overture and 54 arias in Songs in the Opera Call'd Pyrrhus and Demetrius.

[7] The opera opened at the Queen's Theatre on December 14, 1708, with the castrato Nicolò Grimaldi (Nicolini) starring as Pyrrhus, who had sung in the original 1694 production in Naples;[6] another castrato Valentino Urbani, (Valentini) in the role of Demetrius, Littleton Ramondon (Cleartes), Purbeck Turner (Arbantes), Margherita de L’Epine (Marius), Cook (Brennus), Catherine Tofts (Climene), Joanna Maria Lindelheim (Deidamia).

Nicolini brought with him a detailed account of the economics of Venetian opera houses, and the management of the Queen's Theatre adapted its business model accordingly.

He also praised the judicious composition and addition of new material in the Lindon adaptation, which he contrasted with the incoherent efforts of earlier ventures such as Arsinoe, Queen of Cyprus.