Andromeda

Composer: Marc'Antonio Ziani
Librettist: Pietro Pariati
Company: Ars Minerva

Synopsis

Andromeda is a one-act chamber opera set in ancient Egypt, dramatizing the myth of Perseus and Andromeda. It is structured as a single continuous act in the tradition of the Viennese court componimento da camera. It divides naturally into two dramatic movements.

Princess Andromeda, despite her love for Perseus, has been promised by her father King Cefeo, to Agenore. But when Poseidon sends a terrible sea monster to devastate the kingdom, she is offered as a sacrifice to save the people from the monster. Perseus vows to slay the monster and win Andromeda’s hand.

Facing the creature on the shore, he raises the shield given to him by Minerva, whose divine image turns the monster to stone. Andromeda is saved, Perseus wins her love, and the opera closes with a panegyric to Emperor Charles VI, the “hero greater than Perseus” in whose honor the work was composed.