Cimarosa, Domenico (1749-1801)

Domenico Cimarosa was the most famous and popular Italian opera composer of the second half of the Eighteenth 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 Nineteenth 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. The seven overtures listed above are, like all of the composer's overtures, spirited, attractive works that are rich in melodic invention.