Overture to 'Il fanatico per gli antichi romani'

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 fantico per gli antichi romani (The Fanatic for Ancient Romans) is a commedia per musica in three acts with a libretto by Giuseppe Palomba. The first performance took place at Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples in the spring of 1777. Although the opera enjoyed only limited success, the overture, like all of Cimarosa’s overtures, is remarkable for its vitality, melodic invention and assured handling of the orchestra.