Semiramide (Mysliveček)

Though produced at the minor operatic center of Bergamo in northern Italy during the summer fair there held in 1766, it attracted sufficient attention to lead to Mysliveček's commission to compose his opera Il Bellerofonte for the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, an overwhelming success that established him permanently as one of the leading composers of opera in Italy until his death in 1781.

Mysliveček was mainly centered in Venice during his first years in Italy and received training from the composer Giovanni Battista Pescetti.

18th-century Italian operas in serious style are usually set in a distant or legendary past and are built around historical, pseudo-historical, or mythological characters.

Almost nothing is known of the historical Semiramis, which invited Metastasio to concoct a complicated love intrigue typical of operatic conventions of his day.

Princess Tamiri prepares to choose a husband from three candidates, setting in motion a series of events that lead to Semiramide being reunited with her lover Scitalce, and the exposure of the villainy of his rival Sibari.