In 1718 Vivaldi had been nominated
maestro di cappella di camera, at the court of
Philipp von Hessen-Darmstadt in
Mantua for whom he composed ''
Armida al campo d'Egitto,
Teuzzone,
Scanderbeg (all 1718) and then Tito Manlio (1719) and La Candace
(1720). On his return to Venice, following performance of La verità in cimento'' at the
Teatro Sant'Angelo, Vivaldi, thinly disguised as "Aldiviva", became, along with
Giovanni Porta,
Anna Maria Strada and others, one of the principal targets of the gentleman-composer
Benedetto Marcello's satirical pamphlet
Il teatro alla moda (written 1718-1719, published 1720). Bissari's text had originally been written in 1710 as a play for Princess
Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, second wife of the Bavarian elector
Maximillian II Emmanuel. The opera was performed again in Milan in 1723 and 1724. 8 of the arias are preserved in the
Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino. == Roles ==