Libretto: Apostolo Zeno, 'Andromaca. Dramma per musica da rappresentarsi nell'imperial Favorita festeggiandosi il felicissimo giorno natalizio [...] di Elisabetta Cristina imperadrice regnante, per comando [...] di Carlo VI imperadore de'romani [...] l'anno 1724' (Vienna: Johann Peter van Ghelen / Giovanni Pietro van Ghelen, 1724). Zeno's libretto is vaguely connected with Euripides and evidently informed by Racine's Andromaque, as well as by extant opera libretti based on Racine, primarily Antonio Salvi's Astianatte (Florence 1701; Sartori ID 3265). Zeno's version retains the basic love triangle Pirro-Ermione-Andromaca, but explores the story very freely. It adopts the character of Andromaca's son Astianatte from Racine/Salvi and introduces the scheming Ulisse and his son Telemaco. This is one of the few adaptations of the Greek story in which reason triumphs over passion: Pirro lets Andromaca and Astianatte go and marries Ermione. Written for an occasion at the Hapsburg court, it was obviously intended as a celebration of princely decorum. For productions of other settings of Zeno's libretto see Sartori IDs 1895, 1897, 1912.