For the poetic text of Virginia, Mercadante turned to the pen of Calisto Bassi: he had certainly dealt with the poet in relation to the libretti of his last two ‘Viennese’ operas, in all probability composed during that same period (Le nozze di Telemaco ed Antiope and Il podestà di Burgos). The incident that provides the subject matter of the cantata is taken from Book III of The History of Rome by Titus Livius (27 B.C. - 14 A.D.) and was the basis of a play by Vittorio Alfieri (1777-83). […] In...

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