In the Shadow of the Lost Crown. ‘Oppressed Innocence’ in the Operas Dedicated to Maria Clementina Sobieska in Rome (1720–1730)

As a result of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, James II Stuart lost the throne of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He spent the last years of his life in France, in residence offered to his family and court by Louis XIV. Following his death in 1701, the title and claim to the throne of the three kingdoms was inherited by his son James III Stuart, who in 1719 married Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–1735). James and his wife extended their patronage over one of Rome's major opera houses, the Teatro d’Alibert, at which 16 operas were dedicated to that couple in 1720–1730. Of those 8 that honoured Maria Clementina, 4 (half of them) deal with the topic of ‘oppressed innocence’, previously passed over by scholars studying the couple's patronage. These are: Eumene, (lib. A. Zeno, mus. N. Porpora, 1721), Adelaide, (lib. A. Salvi, mus. N. Porpora, 1723), Siroe, re di Persia, (lib. Metastasio, mus. N. Porpora, 1727), and Artaserse, (lib. Metastasio, mus. L. Vinci, 1730). This paper analyses the said operatic theme and attempts to explain why it is the dominant subject in operas dedicated to Sobieska. It also studies the political and propagandist potential which that theme could have for the Stuart cause.