Vivaldi's pasticcio opera Il Bajazet was composed for the carnival season of Venice in 1735. It includes many pieces from earlier works of Vivaldi's, including arias and a quartet from his opera Farnace, but he also borrowed musical numbers from the works of Johann Adolph Hasse, Geminiano Giacomelli, and others to use in the score. Vivaldi is known to us today primarily through his instrumental music, partly because he began composing operas rather late in life. However, he applied the same techniques to his operatic writing as he did to his concerti and other instrumental forms, and his operas enjoyed a good deal of success. Although comparatively conservative in his dramatic approach, he nevertheless shows imagination in presenting the various emotions and situations of his characters. By the year 1735, serious opera had settled into a standard structure in which simple recitative helped the action of the drama unfold, and large scale da capo arias, which resembled vocal concertos, served to discharge the dramatic and emotional tensions of a scene and showcase virtuoso star singers. Another important musical form at the composer's disposal was the accompanied recitative, used for scenes of extreme drama and passion, and often setting scenes of solo monologue. As Bajazet witnesses his daughter promise to marry his archenemy Tamerlano, his violent emotions are given expression in a flexible texture of declamation and arioso singing, supported by an expressive and dramatic orchestra. Later in the opera, when Asteria thinks of her own hatred for Tamerlano, and grieves over her father's death, her solo is also preceded by a dramatic scena of accompanied recitative. This leads right into her aria "Svena uccidi," which expresses her violent hatred in an energetic triple time presto, followed by a melancholic duple andante, with a simple solo line and a pulsating accompaniment, as she grieves for her dead father. Throughout the initial recitative and aria, the changing emotions and thoughts of the protagonist are dramatized by the changing figures in the orchestra, changing timbres, and changing tempi.

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