Opera seria in three acts
Music by Domènech Terradellas
Libretto after Apostolo Zeno
Concert performance in Italian with German surtitles

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Conductor: Francesco Corti

When Domènech Terradellas, a native of Barcelona, died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 38, music lost one of the originators of the “stile galante” who was not given enough time to establish himself as an influential composer. Of all his legacy it is Merope, the work that gave him his breakthrough in Italy during the 1744 carnival season in Livorno, that shows the hugely talented and distinctive artistic personality he had become. The plot blends elements from a psychological thriller and a soap opera: Queen Merope’s husband has been murdered by a tyrant who then proceeds to ask for her hand in marriage. The ten years that the Queen insisted on to consider his proposal have just come to an end. However, she has still not given up hope of being saved. Ten years earlier she had had her young son taken away to a safe place and raised as an avenger. Now he returns and is caught up in farcical court conspiracies.