Fearing the loss of his job, Scarlatti and his family fled to Florence in 1702 in search of employment for both himself and his son, Domenico. His attempts at finding employment proved to be futile, so he and his family moved to Rome, where he became the assistant music director at S. Maria Maggiore. One of the repercussions of the undermining of the Neapolitan nobility was that there was a papal ban on public operas. Because of this, Scarlatti looked to other styles of music for a creative outlet. He found his outlet in oratorio and in writing cantatas for Roman patrons. In 1706 he was elected to the Arcadian Academy, along with Pasquini and Corelli, and in the following year, he presented two operas in Venice: Il trionfo della liberta, and our featured work, Il Mitridate Eupatore. Venice, being the citadel of Italian opera, did not enjoy these operas, and both were deemed as failures. After failing in Venice, he was forced to return back to Rome, where he became the senior post of S Maria Maggiore. This time spent in Rome did not render Scarlatti happy, so he and his family returned to Naples in 1708, where he resumed his position at Naples. He lived out his life in Naples, and wrote his final opera in 1721, titled La Griselda. Alessandro Scarlatti died on Oct. 22nd, 1725. .
Some notable accomplishments of Scarlatti include the following: He was the leader of the Neapolitan School, during which time he arguably perfected the aria da capo and three-part overture; he wrote over 100 operas, church music, motets, masses, serenades, madrigals, and over 700 chamber cantatas, as mentioned in the introductory paragraph.
Il Mitridate Eupatore begins with our protagonist, Antigono, and his wife, Issicratea, wanting to take over reign of Pontus. Mitridate and Issicratea have been exiled from Pontus, so in order to attain entrance into the kingdom, they disguise themselves as Egyptian ambassadors.
