Solimano

Solimano
Opera by Johann Adolph Hasse
Angelo Amorevoli as Solimano in the premiere production (costume by Francesco Ponte)
Librettist	Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca
Premiere	5 February 1753 (1753-02-05) Opernhaus am Zwinger, Dresden

Solimano is an opera in three acts composed by Johann Adolph Hasse to an Italian-language libretto by Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca. Loosely based on an episode in the life of Suleiman the Magnificent, the opera premiered on 5 February 1753 at the Opernhaus am Zwinger in Dresden. The lavish premiere production was designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena and featured Angelo Amorevoli in the title role.

Hasse was a favorite of Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria and composed multiple operas for her court in Dresden, beginning with La Spartana generosa performed in 1747 to celebrate her betrothal to Frederick Christian, Elector of Saxony. His librettist for Solimano, Giovanni Ambrogio Migliavacca, was a student and protégé of Metastasio. Migliacvacca's libretto was loosely based on the early 17th-century tragedy Il Solimano by Prospero Bonarelli, which in turn was loosely based on an episode in the life of Suleiman the Magnificent who had his eldest son Mustafa killed as a traitor. In the opera Mustafa's name is changed to "Selim" while his younger half-brother and rival Cihangir becomes "Osmino". Roxelana, Suleiman's consort and Osmino (Cihangir)'s mother, was a central character in Bonarelli's play, but she is only alluded to in the opera. Migliavacca also changed the tragic ending. In the opera Suleiman recognizes his folly in believing Selim (Mustafa) to be a traitor and spares his life. The two brothers are reconciled and marry the Persian princesses Narsea and Emira with whom they had fallen in love.

Solimano premiered on 5 February 1753 at the Opernhaus am Zwinger. The production designed by Giuseppe Galli Bibiena with costumes by Francesco Ponte was a lavish spectacle with real horses, camels and elephants on stage and hundreds of extras in addition to the seven main singers and the chorus of soldiers. The final scene, a brilliantly lit Turkish camp at night, had ships sailing on the River Tigris with the hanging gardens of Babylon in the distance. The opera ran for twelve performances, and according to contemporary accounts, the ladies of the Dresden Court paid the Swiss Guards to hold their places in the opera house so they revisit the most spectacular scenes on each evening it was performed. Hasse revised the score when Solimano was revived at the Opernhaus am Zwinger in January 1754.Solimano proved to be Migliavacca's most successful libretto and was subsequently set by several other composers, including Fischietti (1755), Pescetti (1756), Perez (1757), and Galuppi (1760).