Overture to 'Il falegname'

Domenico Cimarosa was the most famous and popular Italian opera composer of the second half of the 18th Century. In the course of a brilliantly successful career he composed more than 65 operas as well as a significant body of instrumental music and works for the church. His operas were performed all over Europe, both in Italian and in translation. A number of Cimarosa’s operas continued to enjoy occasional stagings during the 19th Century, and his most famous work, Il matrimonio segreto, is one of only a handful of operas of the period never to have left the repertory. Il Falegname (The Carpenter), a comic opera (technically a commedia per musica or opera buffa) was commissioned as the second opera for the 1780 season at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples. It was a huge success and over the next few years the opera was staged all over Europe. As one would expect its overture, like all of Cimarosa’s overtures, is remarkable for its vitality, melodic invention and assured handling of the orchestra.