Semiramide riconosciuta was first performed to celebrate the birthday of Empress Maria Theresa of Vienna. It was commissioned for the reopening of the renovated Burgtheater in Vienna. It was greeted to great acclaim, and Gluck immediately achieved fame throughout Vienna, especially among the nobility. Semiramide riconosciuta belongs to the group of operas composed early in Gluck's life, before he began trying to reform the opera seria. But although the forms belong to the opera seria, and the action and high emotional points are kept separate, there is evidence that even here the dramatist in Gluck was trying to break free. Many of the da capo arias have altered forms and do not completely return to their original material, thus enabling Gluck to move the drama of the play along through the music.

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