Domenico Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa (Italian: [doˈmeːniko tʃimaˈrɔːza]; 17 December 1749, Aversa, Province of Caserta – 11 January 1801, Venice) was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school. He wrote more than eighty operas during his lifetime, including his masterpiece, Il matrimonio segreto (1792).

Early life and education

Cimarosa was born in Aversa in Campania.

His parents were poor, but, anxious to give their son a good education, they sent him to a free school connected with one of the monasteries in Naples after moving to that city. The organist of the monastery, Padre Polcano, was struck by the boy's intellect, and instructed him in the elements of music and also in the ancient and modern literature of his country. Because of his influence, Cimarosa obtained a scholarship at the musical institute of Santa Maria di Loreto in Naples, where he remained for eleven years, chiefly studying with great masters of the old Italian school; Niccolò Piccinni, Antonio Sacchini, and other musicians of repute are mentioned among his teachers.^[1]

Early career

At the age of twenty-three, Cimarosa began his career as a composer with an opera buffa called Le stravaganze del conte, first performed at the Teatro del Fiorentini at Naples in 1772. The work met with approval, and was followed in the same year by Le pazzie di Stelladaura e di Zoroastro, a farce full of humour and eccentricity. This work was also successful, and the fame of the young composer began to spread all over Italy. In 1774, he was invited to Rome to write an opera for the stagione of that year; and there he produced another comic opera called L'italiana in Londra.^[1]

Midlife

Domenico Cimarosa

Over the next thirteen years, Cimarosa wrote a number of operas for the various theatres of Italy, living temporarily in Rome, in Naples, or wherever else his vocation as conductor of his works happened to take him. From 1784 to 1787, he lived in Florence, writing exclusively for the theatre of that city. The productions of this period of his life are very numerous, consisting of operas (both comic and serious), cantatas, and various sacred compositions. The following works may be mentioned, among many others: Cajo Mario; the three Biblical operas, Assalone, La giuditta, and Il sacrificio d'Abramo; Il convito di pietra; and La ballerina amante, a comic opera first performed at Venice with enormous success.^[1]

In 1787, Cimarosa went to St. Petersburg by invitation of Empress Catherine II. He remained at her court for four years and wrote an enormous number of compositions, mostly of the nature of pièces d'occasion; of most of these, not even the names are on record. One important exception was a Requiem, entitled Messa da Requiem in G minor. The piece, composed in 1787, was commissioned to mark the death of the wife of the French ambassador in St. Petersburg. In 1792, Cimarosa left St. Petersburg and went to Vienna at the invitation of Emperor Leopold II. Here, he produced his masterpiece, Il matrimonio segreto, which ranks among the greatest examples of opera buffa (Verdi considered it the model opera buffa). In 1793, Cimarosa returned to Naples, where Il matrimonio segreto and other works were received with great acclaim. Among the works belonging to his last stay in Naples that may be mentioned is the charming opera, Le astuzie femminili.^[1]

This period of his life is said to have been embittered by the intrigues of envious and hostile persons, including his old rival, Giovanni Paisiello. During the occupation of Naples by the troops of the French Republic, Cimarosa joined the liberal party, but on the return of the Bourbons was imprisoned along with many of his political friends (some say even condemned to death). His sentence was commuted to banishment when influential admirers interceded, and he left Naples with the intention of returning to St. Petersburg, but his health was broken and after much suffering he died in Venice on 11 January 1801 of an intestinal inflammation. The nature of his disease led to the rumor of his having been poisoned by his enemies; however, a formal inquest proved this to be unfounded. He worked until the last moment of his life, and one of his operas, Artemizia, remained unfinished at his death.^[1] The place of his death is marked by a memorial in Campo San Angelo near the calle de Caffetier.

Main works

Cimarosa

Studio Lirico, a summer program for opera singers patronized by University of South Carolina, produced, from 1992 to 1995, a lot of Cimarosa's operas (sometime in first production in modern time) by the artistic direction of Talmage Fauntleroy, stage director, and Nick Rossi, musicologist. In Italy, since 2005 the Tuscan Opera Academy “Domenico Cimarosa” has realized a summer program dedicated to Cimarosa's operas through the artistic and musical direction of Simone Perugini, composer, conductor, musicologist and Italian scholar of Cimarosa. Tuscan Opera Academy “Domenico Cimarosa” realizes two projects about the composer: the first one, called Centro cimarosiano di Studi for the publication of the opera omnia of the composer in critical edition (full score, vocal score and orchestral parts with commentary Foreword), the second one called The Opera Workshop for the production and set-up of composer's operas in critical editions by opera singers and instrumentalists expert on philological practice of 18th-century Italian music.

Operas

Instrumental music

• 88 sonate for harpsichord or fortepiano
• Overture from the opera "The Secret Marriage" early transcription for Harpsichord (Organo or Piano), Wien, Cappi [XIX sec.], Capua, Esarmonia 2010
• Sinfonia in B major for 2 oboi, 2 corni e archi
• Sinfonia in D major (attribuita anche a Josef Mysliveček)
• Concerto for harpsichord or fortepiano in si bemolle maggiore
• Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra
• Concerto per 2 flauti e orchestra in sol maggiore (1793)
• Sestetto in G major for fortepiano, fagotto, 2 violini, viola e violoncello
• Sestetto in F major for fortepiano organizzato, arpa, fagotto, violino, viola da gamba e violoncello
• 6 quartets (re maggiore, sol maggiore, do maggiore, fa maggiore, do maggiore, la minore) per flauto, violino, viola e violoncello
• Requiem (1787) Sol mineur (see version rev.by Victorio Negri- Sept.1968 CD Philips 422 489-2)

Editions

• Stefano Faglia, Franca Saini (ed.): Il mercato di Malmantile, Florence, 1784. Monza, Accademia Musicale IAMR, 2012. Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana (LIM), 2012.
• Stefano Faglia, Franca Saini (ed.): Li due Baroni, Rome, 1783. Monza, Accademia Musicale IAMR, 2013. Lucca, Libreria Musicale Italiana (LIM), 2013.
• Cimarosa, Domenico – Perugini, Simone (a cura di) – L'impresario in angustie, farsa per musica in un atto, edizione critica della versione viennese del 1793 (partitura, riduzione canto&pianoforte, parti orchestrali), Artaria Edition Limited, New Zealand, 2013.
• Cimarosa, Domenico – Perugini, Simone (a cura di) – Il convito, dramma giocoso per musica in due atti, edizione critica dell'opera (partitura, riduzione canto&pianoforte, parti orchestrali), Edizioni Accademia Lirica Toscana "Domenico Cimarosa", Firenze, 2013.
• Cimarosa, Domenico – Perugini, Simone (a cura di) – La vanità delusa [Il mercato di Malmantile], dramma giocoso per musica in due atti, edizione critica dell'opera (partitura, riduzione canto&pianoforte, parti orchestrali), Edizioni Accademia Lirica Toscana "Domenico Cimarosa", Firenze, 2013.
• Cimarosa, Domenico – Perugini, Simone (a cura di) – Li sposi per accidenti, Farsetta per musica in un atto, edizione critica dell'opera (partitura, riduzione canto&pianoforte, parti orchestrali), Edizioni Accademia Lirica Toscana "Domenico Cimarosa", in preparazione.
• Storni Trevisan, Maria – Nel primo centenario della morte di Domenico Cimarosa 1801–1901, Venezia, 1901
• Vitale, R. – Domenico Cimarosa, la vita e le opere / Aversa, 1929
• Biamonti, Giovanni – Il matrimonio segreto di Domenico Cimarosa / Roma, 1930
• Tibaldi Chiesa, Mary – Cimarosa e il suo tempo / Milano, 1939
• Schlitzer, Franco – Goethe e Cimarosa / Siena, 1950
• Rossi, Nick – Fauntleroy, Talmage – Domenico Cimarosa, his life and his operas / Greenwood Press, 1999
• Perugini, Simone – Per far le cose in fretta. Il caso de "La vanità delusa" di Domenico Cimarosa tra Goldoni, Lorenzi, assistenti e impresari, Edizioni Accademia Lirica Toscana "Domenico Cimarosa", Firenze, 2011.
• Perugini, Simone – I matrimoni (quasi) segreti: la famiglia Cimarosa tra Domenico, Cecilia, Gaetana, due Costanze, Paolo e Raffaele, Edizioni Accademia Lirica Toscana "Domenico Cimarosa", Firenze, 2014.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cimarosa, Domenico". Encyclopædia Britannica 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• The specific information on the Messa da Requiem in G minor was taken from the liner notes, written by Keith Anderson, for the 2010 Naxos recording of the piece.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Domenico Cimarosa.

• Free scores by Domenico Cimarosa at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Domenico Cimarosa in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Tuscan Opera Academy "Domenico Cimarosa"