It is not certain when exactly Zingarelli wrote Ero, a Monologo for soprano, but the piece is likely to have emerged in the early years of the 19th century, when Zingarelli was back from Paris and, at least in terms of secular music, still keen to experiment with “advanced” musical modes, in particular taking account of the vogue for sentimental drama that had invaded Naples under French influences.

The librettist, Gaspare Mollo, duca di Lusciano (1754–1823), was a Neapolitan magistrate and f...