“Piramo e Tisbe” was composed during his final years at the conservative court of Vienna for a rich French lady. In Vienna Hasse came in contact with both Gluck’s operas and the reformists – and he reacted musically: by means of many accompagnati, open transitions and shortened reprises he opened the seria’s scheme without betraying it. He put more effort into this two hour long “Intermezzo tragico” than into many other oieces and admitted he himself considered the opera to be one of the best pieces he had ever composed.
The plot largely follows the story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The father forbids his daughter Thisby her love to the neighbours’ son Pyramus for reasons of parental rivalry. To avoid the order, they decide to flee and arrange to meet in the forest by the grave of King Ninos. Thisby is the first to arrive, hears a lion roar and runs away. She loses her veil, which in turn the lion finds and tears apart. Pyramus arrives, sees the veil covered in blood and thinks his Thisby had been killed by the beast. He kills himself with his sword to be at least in death united with his love. Thisby returns as she wants to tell Pyramus of her scare and finds him dying. She takes the sword and kills herself. The father who had followed to catch the fleeing couple appears and stabs himself when he sees the consequences of his forbiddance.