A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Semiramide

by George Grove

SEMIRAMIDE (i.e. Semiramis, Empress of Nineveh). A favourite subject with Italian writers of operas. Librettos upon it were written by Moniglia, Apostolo Zeno, and Silvani; and Clement's Dictionnaire Lyrique contains a list of 21 operas composed to one or other of these by the masters of the eighteenth century. Voltaire's play on the same subject was also adapted to music and set by Graun (Berlin, 1754), and Catel (1802). Rossini's well-known chef-d'œuvre was written to a libretto by Rossi, and produced at Venice Feb. 3, 1823; and in London, at the King's Theatre, July 15, 1824. In French, as 'Semiramis,' it appeared in Paris July 9, 1860.—Semiramide riconosciuta, words by Metastasio, was set by Vinci, Porpora, Cocchi, Sarti, Traetta, Meyerbeer, and Gluck—the last of these at Vienna in 1748. It is important as revealing some of the qualities by which Gluck has been rendered immortal.

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