Giovanni Battista Sammartini was undoubtedly one of most important musicians of early 18th-century Italy. The first performance of Memet took place in 1732, when the composer was just over thirty years old. The plot complies with the enlightened music’s widespread taste for the middle-eastern world, while the structure is that of a tragedy in three acts with five characters (Memet, Solimano, Irene, Zaide and Demetrio) and without choir. The quality of the music is certainly high, thanks to Sammartini’s mature and effective orchestration and to the variety of his melodic inventiveness - quite remarkable in some solo episodes - which spans from cantabile to agility passages of virtuoso difficulty. A world première recording that is a must for opera lovers.