Artaserse

Artaserse is the name of a number of Italian operas, all based on a text by Metastasio. Artaserse is the Italian form of the name of a Persian king, Artaxerxes. There are over 40 known settings of Metastasio's text. The libretto was first set by Vinci in 1730 for Rome. It was subsequently set by Hasse in 1730 for Venice and in 1760 for Naples, by Gluck in 1741 for Milan, by Chiarini in 1741 for Verona, by Graun in 1743 for Stuttgart, by Terradellas in 1744 for Venice, by Galuppi in 1749 for Vienna, by Johann Christian Bach in 1760 for London, by Josef Mysliveček in 1774 for Naples (Artaserse), by Marcos Portugal in 1806 for Lisbon and many other times. The text was often altered.