Overture to 'Il matrimonio segreto'

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. Not only is Il matrimonio segreto (The Secret Marriage) the best-known and most popular of all Cimarosa’s theatrical creations, it is also one of the most popular – if not the most popular – opera buffa of all time. Given its prima in Vienna exactly two months after Mozart’s death, it enjoyed a greater success at the time than any of Mozart’s operas with the possible exception of Così fan tutte. By the end of the 18th century, Il matrimonio segreto had received over 70 performances in Vienna alone and was still being presented in that city in 1884 when Hanslick wrote that the work was “full of sunshine … it had that genuine light golden colour which is the only fitting one for musical comedy”. This edition offers the original version of the overture as it was performed in Vienna on 7 February 1792. It differs in a number of very significant ways from later versions of the overture and is in many respects more impressive.