''Artemisia'' is the last opera of

Domenico Cimarosa Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is ''Il matrimonio segreto'' (1792); most of his ...

. The

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

, in three acts, is by Count Giovanni Battista Colloredo. Cimarosa died on 11 January 1801 before writing the music to Act III; the first performance, given at the

Teatro La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (, "The Phoenix") is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th century, La Fenice beca ...

in Venice on 17 January 1801, also included interpolations by other hands in the first two acts.Rossi (1993), p. 153 In the opera,

Artemisia Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

, Queen of

Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; tr, Karya) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians, Ionian and Dorians, Dorian Greeks colonized the west of i ...

, the widow of

Mausolus Mausolus ( grc, Μαύσωλος or , xcr, ��𐊠��𐊸𐊫𐊦 ''Mauśoλ'') was a ruler of Caria (377–353 BCE) and a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire. He enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue of the powerful position created by h ...

, has to deal with a variety of unwanted suitors. The opera is not to be confused with Cimarosa's earlier opera (1797), ''Artemisia, Regina di Caria (Artemisa, Queen of Caria''), which has a similar storyline, but is set to a different libretto.Rossi (1999), p. 154.

References

;Notes ;Sources * Rossi, Nick and Talmage Fauntleroy (1999). ''Domenico Cimarosa: his Life and Operas.'' Westport CT and London: Greenwood Press. {{Domenico Cimarosa Operas 1801 operas Italian-language operas Opera seria Operas by Domenico Cimarosa Operas set in Greece Unfinished operas Opera world premieres at La Fenice