Artaserse is the name of a number of Italian operas, all based on a text by Metastasio. Artaserse is the Italian form of the name of the king Artaxerxes I of Persia.
Thomas Arne's 1762
Artaxerxes is set to an English libretto that is based on Metastasio's.
Mozart's aria for soprano and orchestra "Conservati fedele" (K. 23, 1765) is set to the parting verses of Mandane (Artaserse's sister) at the end of the first scene.
The opera was famously performed in 1734 as a pastiche of songs by various composers such as Johann Adolf Hasse,
Attilio Ariosti,
Nicola Porpora and
Riccardo Broschi. It was in this that Broschi's brother,
Farinelli, sang one of his best-known arias, "Son qual nave ch'agitata".