solemnity of the typical duets of challenge (Quando nel campo armata …)", only to pass soon, almost imperceptibly, "to the tenderness and the abandon of A questi accenti adesso …". Celletti says it is true for all the most noted pages of the opera, first of all Curiatius's Quelle pupille tenere. The only possible exception is Oratius’s Se alla patria ognor donai, which constitutes instead "an example of heroic aria for a tenor of buskined melodrama", which was to remain in full vogue till Rossini beginnings, "central range, periodical ascending intervals to give vigour and fit to the melody, short melismas or descending scales to strengthen its aulic expression, and intensification of the melismas when the Allegro A voi tutti il vivo lampo begins." Celletti also says that Cimarosa got to give the best of his inspiration in the grand scene of the subterranean temple in act two: "An orchestral introduction, solemn and mysterious, is followed by other orchestral moments of a descriptive character that show how brilliantly certain operists of ours could catch the element either mysterious or fearful or horrid without imitating nature slavishly…; but in the meantime the beautiful recitatives of Curiatius and of Horatia and Curiatius’Andantino Ei stesso intrepido intersect, to come to the great resumption of the other solo voices and of the chorus (Regni silenzio muto, profondo)." The final furious duet between Marcus Horatius and Horatia is unusual in Metastasio melodrama, but was reported to be "greatly appreciated" by the public. In the première it was performed by two of the most imposing coeval singers: the young beautiful man-eater diva (and great cantatrice), Grassini, and the handsome heroic tenor Matteo Babini (or Babbini), who, besides being a cultured, most refined and expressive singer, could undoubtedly cut a worthy figure by her side, not surely lacking in phisique du rôle (he was tall, blond, slender and with a very fine countenance). Cimarosa's vocal writing is extremely measured, avoiding high tessitura, long vocalizations, acrobatics and excessive ornamentation — save, to a small extent, in Marcus Horatius’ heroic aria. Celletti comments on this "Cimarosa’s coloratura is one of those we can define as wide, opposed to the minute coloraturas of some baroque operists or of the Neapolitan period’s Rossini. Hence the performers have not the discretion but the duty of integrating the composer’s writing with variations, reductions and interpolation of cadenzas, especially in the da capo". Synopsis