Semiramide riconosciuta (Meyerbeer)

Semiramide riconosciuta (Semiramis recognised) is a dramma per musica in two acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer. It is the composer's fifth opera and the second that he composed for a theatre in Italy. The text is an adaptation of a pre-existing libretto by Pietro Metastasio that had already been set to music . The opera had its premiere at the Teatro Regio Turin on 3 February 1819.

Born in Berlin to a wealthy family, as a young man Giacomo Meyerbeer had musical ambitions and studied and traveled in Italy. Much impressed and influenced by the leading Italian composer of operas of the day, Rossini, Meyerbeer composed an opera in the style of that composer, Romilda e Costanza, which was produced in Padua in 1817. Through the support of a star singer of the day, Carolina Bassi, Meyerbeer had the opportunity to compose an opera for Turin, and the already ninety year old libretto Semiramide riconosciuta (presented in Turin simply as Semiramide) by Pietro Metasasio was chosen for the occasion.

The libretti of Metastasio followed the form of opera seria, with passages of secco recitative followed by solo arias for the singers and contain little or no ensembles (duets, trios, etc) or choruses. The 1729 libretto for Semiramide riconsciuta by Metastasio had some thirty arias, and had already been set to music by numerous composers including Gluck, Salieri, Porpora, and others.Josef Mysliveček's version, titled simply Semiramide, was performed in 1766. By 1819, musical and theatrical taste had changed and audiences wanted more from opera than one solo aria after the other, so the libretto was adapted by Lodovico Piossasco Feys to include duets and ensembles, a lengthy finale to the first act with ensembles and chorus, as demanded by the taste of the time, and the many passages of dialogue in recitative were shortened. Although a success at its first performance in Turin, the opera was only given there three times. In 1820 the libretto was further revised by Gaetano Rossi, with musical revisions by the composer, and was given under the title Semiriamide riconosciuta in Bologna, with the same star, Carolina Bassi, in the title role, with great success. The story of this opera is not the same as the story of Rossini's 1823 opera Semiramide with a libretto by Rossi based on a play by Voltaire, but shows the Babylonian queen (known in English as 'Semiramis') at an early part of her life, rather than at the end of it, as in the Rossini opera. Neither storyline is based on historical fact.

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