Premiere possibly in May 1772; Archbishop's Palace Salzburg. Mozart composed Il sogno di Scipione for the jubilee of Prince Archbishop Schrattenbach due to take place in January 1772. As he had to be in Milan for the premiere of Ascanio in Alba from late August, he prepared Il sogno di Scipione well in advance. However, he could not foresee the death of Schrattenbach in December 1771 so the proposed opening was delayed. Mozart, father and son, hoped then to have it performed at the installation of the new Prince Archbishop Colloredo in March 1772 and the dedication was changed accordingly. The well-known meanness of Colloredo and his antipathy towards Mozart means that it is likely that the planned performance never took place.

The subject of the opera is the historical Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus [185 - 129 BC].

Scipio dreams that he is visited by the goddesses Fortune and Constancy, who demand that he choose between them. They take him to Elysium, where his father and adoptive grandfather tell him about the immortality of the soul and urge him to live virtuously. When Scipio finally chooses Constancy, Fortune in her fury overwhelms him with a cataclysm, at which he wakes up to find Constancy still with him. In an epilogue the Prince Archbishop is addressed directly, for 'the heart exalts him though the tongue may speak of Scipio'.

Despite the use of chorus, trumpets and high horns, Mozart is unable to convey much personality to the music. There is little to distinguish between the music of the three tenor Scipios or the two soprano goddesses. He does occasionally illustrate the words, as in the Metastasian cliché of the rock assailed by high seas, 'Biancheggia in mar lo scoglio', with coloratura and busy strings, but surviving to enjoy a calm andante, He passes by the opportunity of setting Constancy's description of the Harmony of the Spheres to an accompagnato. The only accompagnato - for the cataclysm - is an academic collection of random modulations. As with Ascanio, the main pleasure is in the neat workmanship, in the way the violins weave a decorative line around the sung melody, above all in the sheer energy of some of the music, for example Publio's 6/8 'Quercia annosa'. But there is a very revealing contrast between the epilogue addressed to the Archbishop, frivolous but charming enough, and another setting of the same text, apparently composed in March or April 1772 to conclude or replace Il sogno di Scipione at Colloredo's installation ceremony. In it the melodies are more memorable, and the harmonies and the chains of coloratura have a sense of direction.