Se a innamorarsi è la regina: la "Didone abbandonata" di Pietro Metastasio

Didone abbandonata was Metastasio’s first drama for music. It was per- formed in Naples in 1724 and subsequently replicated and modified for the most famous Italian theaters. This drama was born from an artistic collaboration and the close personal abstracts  relationship between the poet and singer Marianna Benti Bulgarelli but soon crosses the representative contest for which it was thought, becoming a canonical encounter for many musicians down to the first half of nineteenth century. This scientific essay reconstructs the complex and twofold editorial and theatrical adventure of the first Metastasio’s drama and analyzes the implications of the dramatic text performative that gives new light to the myth of Virgil Carthaginian queen of theatrical context of seventeenth century.