Socrate Immaginario

Paisiello distances himself, his sentiments and intellect, from his characters; he describes theatrical realities that on the surface do not seem the least bit serious in parodically grave tones. Voices from another world, Elisi and Iperuranio, who sing alternating Macaronic Greek with a stinging parody of a more recent scene from Hell: the one from Orfeo ed Euridice by Calzabigi and Gluck, performed in Naples barely a year before with modifications and additions by Johann Christian Bach and others.