Brilliant Sounds Pergolesi's 'Adriano in Siria' - reviewed by ROBERT ANDERSON 'The music is as bewitching as the story is dotty.'

There is little point in expecting opera seria to deviate into historical sense. Pergolesi at twenty-four was the third composer to set this farrago of a text compiled originally by Metastasio. For its Naples production in 1734, when the future Charles III had just regained the city for Spain, the libretto was much adjusted to accommodate the star appearance of the castrato Caffarelli. To console the audience for any absence of facts, there was the delicious compensation of a little intermezzo between the acts called Livietta e Tracollo...

GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI

OPUS ARTE

METASTASIO

NAPLES

ITALY