Creso (Sacchini)

Creso ('Croesus') is an opera seria in 3 acts with music by Antonio Sacchini, set to an Italian libretto by Gioacchino Pizzi after Book I of the Histories by Herodotos. The opera was first performed on 4 November 1765 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. The libretto was a popular one that had been first set by Niccolò Jommelli (Rome, 1757).

Creso was the most widely performed of Sacchini's opera serias, and much of the music displays the transition that the aria form of opera seria was undergoing. The standard aria dal segno form is interlaced with examples of abbreviated rondo form (ABAB) and through-composed ternary arias. Some of the music suggests themes from the works of the widely influential Tommaso Traetta.

Roles

Role	Voice type	Premiere Cast, 4 November 1765 (Conductor:)
Creso (Croesus)	tenor	Salvatore Casetti
Ariene, his daughter,	soprano	Maria Antonia Girelli-Aguilar
Euriso, Ariene's betrothed	soprano castrato	Giuseppe Aprile "Sciroletto"
Cratina	soprano	Francesca Gabrielli
Ciro	soprano castrato	Antonio Muzzio
Sibari	soprano castrato	Giuseppe Fabrizi

References

• Casaglia, Gherardo (2005)."Creso, 4 November 1765". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
• McClymonds, Marita P. (2001). "Creso". In Root, Deane L. (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Oxford University Press. ‎