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CIMAROSA, DOMENICO (1749-1801)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CIMAROSA, DOMENICO (1749-1801) , See also:Italian musical composer, was See also:born at See also:Aversa, in the See also:kingdom of See also:Naples, on the 17th of See also:December 1749. His parents were poor, but anxious to give their son a See also:good See also:education; and after removing to Naples they sent him to a See also:free school connected with one of the monasteries of that See also:city. The organist of the monastery, Padre Polcano, was struck with the boy's See also:intellect, and voluntarily instructed him in the elements of See also:music, as also in the See also:ancient and See also:modern literature of his See also:country. To his See also:influence Cimarosa owed a free scholarship at the musical See also:institute of See also:Santa Maria di See also:Loreto, where he remained for eleven years, studying chiefly the See also:great masters of the old Italian school. Piccini, See also:Sacchini and other musicians of repute are mentioned amongst his teachers. At the See also:age of twenty-three Cimarosa began his career as a composer with a comic See also:opera called Le Stravaganze del See also:Conte, first per-formed at the Teatro del Fiorentini at Naples in 1772. The See also:work met with approval, and was followed in the same See also:year by Le Pazzie di Stellidanza e di Zoroastro, a See also:farce full of See also:humour and eccentricity. This work also was successful, and the fame of the See also:young composer began to spread all over See also:Italy. In 1774 he was invited to See also:Rome to write an opera for the stagione of that year; and he there produced another comic opera called L'Italiana in Londra. The next thirteen years of Cimarosa's See also:life are not marked by any event See also:worth mentioning. He wrote a number of operas for the various theatres of Italy, living temporarily in Rome, in Naples, or wherever else his vocation as a conductor of his See also:works happened to See also:call him. From 1784-1787 he lived at See also:Florence, See also:writing exclusively for the See also:theatre of that city.

The productions of this See also:

period of his life arc very numerous, consisting of operas, both comic and serious, cantatas, and various sacred compositions. The following works may be mentioned amongst many others:—Caio See also:Mario; the three biblical operas, Assalone, La Giuditta and Il Sacrificio d' Abramo; also Il Convito di Pietra; and La Ballerina amante, a See also:pretty comic opera first performed at See also:Venice with enormous success. About the year 1788 Cimarosa went to St See also:Petersburg by invitation of the empress See also:Catherine II. At her See also:court he remained four years and wrote an enormous number of compositions, mostly of the nature of pieces d'occasion. Of most of these not even the names are on See also:record. In 1792 Cimarosa See also:left St See also:Peters-See also:burg, and went to See also:Vienna at the invitation of the See also:emperor See also:Leopold II. Here he produced his masterpiece, Il Matrimonio segreto, which ranks amongst the highest achievements of See also:light operatic music. In 1793 Cimarosa returned to Naples, where Il Matrimonio segreto and other works were received with great See also:applause. Amongst the works belonging to his last stay in Naples may be mentioned the charming opera Le Astuzie feminili. This period of his life is said to have been embittered by the intrigues of envious and hostile persons, amongst whom figured his old See also:rival See also:Paisiello. During the occupation of Naples by the troops of the See also:French See also:Republic, Cimarosa joined the liberal party, and on the return of the Bourbons, was, like many of his See also:political See also:friends, condemned to See also:death. By the intercession of influential admirers his See also:sentence was commuted into banishment, and he left Naples with the intention of returning to St Petersburg.

But his See also:

health was broken, and after much suffering he died at Venice on the rrth of See also:January 18or, of inflammation of the intestines. The nature of his disease led to the rumour of his having been poisoned by his enemies, which, however, a formal See also:inquest proved to be unfounded. He worked till the last moment of his life, and one of his operas, Artemizia, remained unfinished at his death.

End of Article: CIMAROSA, DOMENICO (1749-1801)

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