Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to about 1770. The term itself was rarely used at the time and only attained common usage once opera seria was becoming unfashionable and beginning to be viewed as something of a historical genre. The popular rival to opera seria was opera buffa, the 'comic' opera that took its cue from the improvisatory commedia dell'arte.
Bellérophon is an opera with music by Jean-Baptiste Lully and a libretto by Thomas Corneille and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle first performed by the Opéra at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on 31 January 1679.
La buona figliuola, or La Cecchina, is an opera buffa in three acts by Niccolò Piccinni. The libretto, by Carlo Goldoni, is based on Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. This was Piccinni's most successful Italian opera. There was a sequel entitled La buona figliuola maritata (1761) by the same composer and librettist. La buona figliuola supposta vedova by Gaetano Latilla followed in 1766.
Medonte, re di Epiro is an opera seria in three acts by Giuseppe Sarti. The libretto was by Giovanni de Gamerra for Felice Alessandri's opera Medonte, re d'Epiro (1774) and was later set by several other composers.
Calliroe is an opera by Antonio Sacchini, set to a libretto by Mattia Verazi. It was first performed in Schloss Ludwigsburg on 11 February 1770 and the ballets were set by French choreographer Louis Dauvigny.
Creso ('Croesus') is an opera seria in 3 acts with music by Antonio Sacchini, set to an Italian libretto by Gioacchino Pizzi after Book I of the Histories by Herodotos. The opera was first performed on 4 November 1765 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. The libretto was a popular one that had been first set by Niccolò Jommelli.
Ercole amante is an opera in a prologue and five acts by Francesco Cavalli. Its Italian libretto is by Francesco Buti, based on Sophocles' The Trachiniae and on the ninth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. The first performance took place on 7 February 1662 in the Salle des Machines of the Tuileries in Paris.
Giuseppe Francesco Bianchi was an Italian opera composer. Born in Cremona, Lombardy, he studied with Pasquale Cafaro and Niccolò Jommelli, and worked mainly in London, Paris and in all the major Italian operatic centers of Venice, Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence.
La Lodoiska is an opera in three acts by Simon Mayr to an Italian libretto by Francesco Gonella De Ferrari. It was Mayr's second opera and premiered at La Fenice in Venice on 26 January 1796.
Didone abbandonata is an opera in three acts composed by Domenico Sarro to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio of the same name which was based on the story of Dido and Aeneas from the fourth book of Virgil's Aeneid. The opera premiered on 1 February 1724 at the Teatro San Bartolomeo in Naples.
Siroe, or Siroe re di Persia, is an opera seria in three acts by Johann Adolph Hasse. The libretto was by Metastasio. As with many of the latter's libretti, Siroe was also set by Hasse's contemporaries, for example Vinci, Vivaldi and Handel.
Calto is an opera seria in three acts by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was by Giuseppe Maria Foppa, after the 'Celtic' poetry of Ossian. The opera was first performed at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice on 23 January 1788.
Zemira is an opera seria in three acts by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was by Gaetano Sertor.
La villanella rapita is an opera giocosa in two acts by Francesco Bianchi with additional arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for its later performances in Vienna. The libretto was by Giovanni Bertati.
Castore e Polluce is an opera seria by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was one translated by Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni, from Pierre-Joseph Bernard's French text for Rameau's Castor et Pollux.
Arbace is an opera seria in three acts by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was by Gaetano Sertor.
La morte di Cesare is an opera seria in three acts by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was by Gaetano Sertor, after Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar.
Alonso e Cora is an opera seria in three acts by Francesco Bianchi. The libretto was by Giuseppe Foppa, after Ferdinando Moretti's Idalide, o sia La vergine del sole, as used by Giuseppe Sarti in Milan in 1783. The original source of this text was in turn Jean François Marmontel's Les Incas, ou La destruction de l'empire du Pérou (1777).
Mattia Verazi was an Italian librettist primarily active at the court of Charles Theodore in Mannheim. He became known as the leader of a group of librettists who challenged the conventions of opera seria in the mid-18th century and was a long-time collaborator of composer Niccolò Jommelli. He also produced the libretti for Salieri's Europa riconosciuta, Sacchini's Calliroe, and J. C. Bach's Temistocle
