Game of Thrones in the Russian Empire: Metastasio Revisited for St Petersburg

The essay explores the political uses of Metastasian opera through two Russian productions of La Clemenza di Tito. The first, performed in Italian in 1742 for the coronation of Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna, staged the figure of the merciful ruler to affirm Elizabeth’s legitimacy after her coup d’état and to present her as both a rightful sovereign and an enlightened reformer. More than three decades later, Catherine II, who had likewise seized the throne through a palace revolt, commissioned a Russian version of the opera that included chorus and ballet and marked the beginning of Russian musical tragedy. The poet Iakov Kniazhnin, celebrated as “Russia’s Sophocles,” provided the libretto, perhaps as the price of his pardon after a politically suspect tragedy had brought him under censure. By comparing these two productions, the chapter highlights how La Clemenza di Tito functioned as a political instrument and illuminates the Enlightenment dilemma of reconciling moral virtue with political power.