Facsimile of the score and edition of the librettos with introductory essays by Francesco Giuntini and Reinhard Strohm
«Drammaturgia musicale veneta», 14
Ricordi, Milan, 2013

Nerone, a “tragedia per musica” by Agostino Piovene, received its first staging in Venice in 1721 with music by Giuseppe Maria Orlandini, and won great success in the version performed two years later in Hamburg by Johann Mattheson, who retained the original arias, but traslated the recitatives into German and provided new musical settings for them, adding a few pieces of his own composition. In addition to a score corresponding to the Hamburg version (D-B, Mus. ms.16370), the volume contains editions of the Italian libretto of 1721 and the German one of 1723.

The opera is one of the most advanced manifestations of the reformist tendenciens of the early eighteenth century: this is a genuine tragedy, inspired by the Britannicus of Racine. A noteworthy example of the adaptive strategies pursued by Italian opera in Europan theatres, Nerone in addition evidences the fondness of the Hamburg stage for the theme of opposition to tyranny and, even more strongly, Mattheson’s critical and artistic abilities.