Tito e Berenice

Tito e Berenice is an opera (dramma per musica) in three acts composed by Antonio Caldara to a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece. It premiered on 10 January 1714 at the Teatro Capranica in Rome. The story centers on the love affair between Berenice of Cilicia and the future Roman Emperor Titus. The libretto borrows from earlier plays on the same subject by Corneille (Tite et Bérénice) and Racine (Berenice), both of which premiered in 1670 and took as their starting point Suetonius's brief account of the love affair in De vita Caesarum.

Tito e Berenice was the result of a competition set by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, a prominent patron of the arts in Rome. Two rival academies, the Accademia degli Arcadi and the Accademia dei Quirini, were each to sponsor an opera to be performed during the 1714 Carnival season in the newly renovated Teatro Capranica. Ottoboni would give a generous gift to the academy which had produced the best one. Both operas were to be on themes associated with ancient Rome. Ottoboni assembled a cast of singers who would perform in both operas. Both operas had sets designed by Ottoboni's architect, Filippo Juvarra, and both were to be performed with ballet intermezzi choreographed by Nicolò L'Evêque. The Arcadi chose academy member, Carlo Sigismondo Capece, to write their libretto. He also served as the private secretary and court poet to Maria Casimira of Poland and had previously written libretti for operas performed in her private theatre at the Palazzo Zuccari in Rome (as had Ottoboni). Antonio Caldara, the maestro di cappella to Prince Ruspoli, was chosen as the composer. The Quirini chose Antonio Salvi to write the libretto for their opera, Lucio Papirio (based on the life of Lucius Papirius), and Francesco Gasparini to compose the music.

...
Wikipedia