Tamerlano (Gasparini opera)

Tamerlano (Tamerlane) is a tragic opera in three acts by Francesco Gasparini based on a libretto by Agostino Piovene [de].

[1][a][2]: 30 Piovene’s libretto was based on Tamerlan ou La mort de Bajazet by Jacques Pradon (1675).

[4] Tamerlano was Gasparini’s most famous opera, distinguished by the unusual decision to assign the role of Bajazet to a tenor, Giovanni Paita, rather than to a castrato.

[5] The plot concerns a series of dilemmas facing the Turkish sovereign Bajazet who has been defeated and humiliated by Tamerlano, emperor of the Tartars.

[2]: 13 George Frideric Handel certainly studied both of Gasparini’s versions of the opera before creating his own Tamerlano in 1724.