Janos Gereben wrote:
>... you'll get arias from "Lucio Silla," "Zaide," and - ready? - "Ascanio
>in Alba." After all these years-in-opera, I never heard a note from that
>last one. (1771, a gift for the wedding of Archduke Ferdinand.)
A *commission*, not a gift. No professional composer would give away a
full-length opera.
-Margaret Mikulska