La Nitteti is an 18th-century Italian opera in 3 acts by the Czech composer Josef Mysliveček. It was composed to a libretto by the Italian poet Metastasio that was first performed in 1756, one of the newer (and less popular) of the Metastasian librettos in Mysliveček's day. For a performance in the 1770s, it would only be expected that a libretto of such age would be abbreviated and altered to suit contemporary operatic taste. This opera contains more substitutions of original aria texts than any other Mysliveček setting of a Metastasian libretto. The cuts and changes in the text made for the 1770 performance of Mysliveček's opera are not attributable. All of Mysliveček's operas are of the serious type in Italian language referred to as opera seria. Performance history The opera was first performed at the Teatro Nuovo Pubblico in Bologna on 29 April 1770, a month after Mysliveček first made the acquaintance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his father Leopold the previous month in the same city. From the correspondence of the Mozart family, it is known that the singer Caterina Gabrielli was engaged originally to be the prima donna for the production, but she did not come up from Palermo as planned, to the disappointment of the Bolognese. Her replacement, Clementina Spagnuoli, was a much less distinguished singer. Another notable singer, the castrato Tommaso Guarducci, met Mysliveček for the first time during the course of the preparations for this production, then became close professional associates for several years afterward. The production was a success. It was revived for the carnival operatic season of 1777 for the Teatro Nuovo in Pavia, the same theater that first opened in 1773 with a performance of Mysliveček's first setting of Metastasio's libretto Demetrio. Two arias from Nitteti, "Povero cor, tu palpiti," and "Se la cagion saprete" received modern premieres at a concert of the Mozartists, with Ian Page conducting, at Cadogan Hall in London on 7 March 2020. . Connection with Mozart During the summer of 1770, the young Mozart was staying with his father in Bologna and working on his first opera for Italy, Mitridate, re di Ponto, which was supposed to be performed in Milan later that year. Mysliveček was also staying in Bologna that summer and was a frequent visitor to the Mozart household according to letters of Mozart's father. There is no question that Wolfgang studied Mysliveček's score