Ipermestra

Ipermestra is an opera libretto by Pietro Metastasio first set by Johann Adolph Hasse 8 January 1744, and in the November of the same year by Christoff Willibald Gluck.

Plot

The story is based on that of Hypermnestra (Ὑπερμνήστρα) in Greek mythology, the daughter of Danaus and the ancestor of the Danaids. The story had already been the theme of earlier operas including Hipermestra, by Francesco Cavalli 1658, and operas Ipermestra by Geminiano Giacomelli 1724,[1] Antonio Vivaldi (1728 lost), Francesco Feo 1736, Giovanni Battista Ferrandini 1741, Rinaldo da Capua 1744.

Settings of Metastasio's libretto

References

  1. ^ Eleanor Selfridge-Field - A New Chronology of Venetian Opera and Related Genres, 1660-1760 2007 0804744378 "All the daughters obeyed except Hypermnestra (Faustina Bordoni), who spared her cousin, the argonaut Lynceus (Antonio Bemacchi), on account of his kindness. The first Venetian performance of Ipermestra was given on 5 February 1724 "