Ascanio in Alba by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Short summary

5 seconds

The goddess Aeneas sends her son Ascanio to Alba to build and rule the city there. She persuades the young man not to reveal his identity to his bride in order to test her virtue.

1 minute

The goddess Aeneas tells her son Ascanio of the delights of Alba. She wishes her son to go there and begin his reign. The mother convinces the young man not to tell the nymph Sylvia, to whom he has been engaged, his identity. Ascanio must introduce himself by another name to test the bride’s virtue.

Aeneas’s son pretends to be a foreigner attracted to the area by its beauty. The priest Akeste tells the shepherds that a beautiful city will be built in their valley, with Ascanio as its ruler. He tells Silvia that she will be the ruler’s bride. The girl replies that she is in love with the young man she has seen in her dreams. According to the priest, Silvia has seen Askanio in her dreams.

The hero meets the bride among the shepherds and tries to speak to her. She immediately recognizes the young man from her dreams. Silvia becomes convinced that the foreigner is not Ascanio, which saddens her greatly. She is ready to accept her fate, but she cannot love anyone but Ascanio.