Il burbero di buon cuore, the first production in a series of successful collaborations between Lorenzo Da Ponte and Vicente Martín y Soler, was the result—we are told—of a suggestion made by Emperor Joseph II himself as patron of the Italian opera in Vienna.

Vicente Martín y Soler (Valencia, 2-V-1754;St.Petersburg, 11-II-1806) is one of the great classics of Spanish dramatic music.Born in Valencia, Martín y Soler rose to fame during his stay in Naples and other Italian cities, and finally at the Viennese court.

L'arbore di Diana, by Lorenzo Da Ponte and Vicente Martín y Soler, is one of some sixty operas produced at the Vienna Burgtheater under the auspices of the emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, between 1783 and 1792.

Vicente Martín y Soler (Valencia, 2-V-1754;St.Petersburg, 11-II-1806) is one of the most outstanding composers of stage music of eighteenth-century Spain and Europe.He exerted his musical mastery in Spain, Italy, Russia and England.