Domenico Cimarosa

Con "Il Matrimonio Segreto", considerata l'opera giocosa più celebre del Settecento dopo la trilogia Mozart-Da Ponte, il compositore Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) pose un trionfale suggello al secolo che aveva visto la nascita e il trionfo del genere buffo di scuola napoletana. Per dirla con l'insuperato musicologo Massimo Mila: "Il Matrimonio Segreto conclude il secolo che muore: la gaiezza settecentesca è ormai tutta permeata di malinconia e di patetica sensibilità".

When Domenico Bedini sang “Deh per questo istante solo” in La clemenza di Tito in September 1791, it was the 30th Rondò written for him in the course of 18 years of a steady career as primo uomo at all the major opera houses in Italy. The paper tries to reconstruct his career as a Rondò singer, which started in 1777 and continued through a spectacular series of compositions by Mortellari, Ottani, Myslivecek, Schuster, Alessandri, Rust, Martín y Soler, Sarti, Cherubini, Cimarosa and others right into the early 1790s with its new generation of composers (Nasolini). Bedini preferred to sing in a limited range mostly in A major, using special chromatic motives and melodic turns, which recur in Mozart’s Rondò, as do certain harmonic and formal features of his Rondò arias. He was a favorite of the Florentine court, which explains for his being chosen for Prague in 1791. There are no signs of a decline of his voice or career prior to the Prague coronation. In quoting extensively from Italian newspaper reports on the singer, from poems, from the correspondence of Padre Martini, who was Bedini’s mentor and from other sources the paper tries to convey a vivid picture of the singer and his success. Music examples from 11 of his Rondòs and an analysis of typical examples try to describe the specific features of Bedini’s “Rondò style”.

To inaugurate the Teatro Sociale in Rovereto
in 1784, a title of Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) was chosen, among those
the most popular of the moment. Just with Giannina, and Bernardone (1st
representation: S. Samuele Venice, 1781), more than forty
new productions in the major Italian and European cities to
1800, such as Naples, Florence, Bologna, Turin, Milan, Vienna,
Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Dresden, Krakow, St. Petersburg) and other
Italian works of the period, the Neapolitan composer was firmed
as one of the most successful opera composers.

From September 1781 to October 1782, Grand Duke Paul, son of Empress Catherine the Great and heir to the Russian throne, and his wife Maria Feodorovna toured Europe. Despite traveling incognito (as the Counts of the North, in Italian the Conti del Nord) all of Europe knew who they were and every city treated them as celebrities.

The grand duke and duchess loved music and theater. It was natural that opera should play a crucial role in the festivities with which they were welcomed everywhere. Since the Russian court had established a tradition of hiring the best Italian opera composers—Galuppi, Paisiello—as music directors, young composers such as Cimarosa probably regarded the grand-ducal tour as an opportunity to display their talent, in the hope that they might one day be summoned to Russia.

One of several operas that the Russians heard in Italy was Cimarosa’s Il convito. On 7 April 1782, an audience in Florence that included the Conti del Nord was especially pleased with an ensemble, according to the Gazzetta toscana:

Domenico sera comparvero nel Regio Teatro di via della Pergola insieme con le Loro Altezze Reali ed arciduca Francesco per trovarsi presenti alla rappresentanza di un Dramma ivi per la prima volta esposto in scena, che ha per titolo il Convito messo in musica dal celebre Maestro Cimarosa. Trovasi in esso un bellissimo quartetto di nuova invenzione, che sempre vien fatto replicare tanto ha incontrato il genio della numerosa udienza, ed i finali ancora sono molto stimati.

“Un bellissimo quartetto di nuova invenzione”—the phrase raises several questions. What was this quartet? What was it that the audience in Florence found so beautiful? What does “di nuova invenzione” mean? After an overview of the musical component of the Russians’ grand tour, this paper proposes answers to these questions and considers Cimarosa’s quartet against the background of the tour and of the potential benefits that the composer might have gained from favorably impressing the Conti del Nord.

The new version of this paper offers musical transcriptions and a detailed analysis of nine insertion arias sung by Maria Marchetti Fantozzi and Domenico Bedini at Genoa's Teatro S. Agostino during the Carnival season of 1789. Marchetti's personal version of Angelo Tarchi's Rondò "Nel lasciar l'amato bene" is analyzed and transcribed, based on the Berlin score Mus. ms. 21263 and the Milan score. The second part of the paper concentrates on short scores from the Fondo Antico in the Conservatorio Niccolò Paganini in Genoa. They contain arias inserted by Marchetti and Bedini into Guglielmi's opera "Enea e Lavinia" and the Pasticcio ´"Attalo re di Bitinia". Both opera productions are reconstructed in detail, and the short scores are described concerning the arrangement practices and the repertoire of the two famous Mozart singers Marchetti and Bedini: their choice of insertion arias, the textual and musical arrangements, the cuts in the ensembles, embellishments and other strategies, last but not least the impact of the insertions on the dramaturgy of Guglielmi's most famous opera seria. Finally, those arias reveal a number of parallels to Mozart's music written for Marchetti and Bedini in "La clemenza di Tito". Especially Tarchi's Rondò "Nel lasciar l'amato bene" and Cimarosa's aria "Teneri dolci affetti" from "Attalo" can be seen as forerunners of Mozart's aria and Rondò for Vitellia.

The textual tradition of Penelope, an opera seria written in 1795 by Giuseppe Maria Diodati and Domenico Cimarosa, reflects not only the creative project of the original authors, but also those of others who modified the score over time. Particulary notable in this sense is the case of the contralto Giuseppina Grassini (1779-1850) who sang the title role several times between 1795 and 1803. Reconstructing some of the
changes effected by her, I seek to explain why this singer should
herself be considered one of the main authors of Penelope.

This book spins three threads. The first is biographical: a life of Salieri up to the end of his career as an opera composer in 1804 that relies as much as possible on archival and other primary sources. The second thread is institutional: a study of Viennese operatic organizations within which Salieri's career unfolded, and of the people who shaped them and who worked within them. The third is musico-dramatic: a study of a representative sample of Salieri's operas, amply illustrated with examples of his music. Woven together, these threads produce a biography that can also be read as a history of Viennese opera from the primacy of Gluck in the 1760s to the period in which the operas of Luigi Cherubini and Nicolas Dalayrac (in German translation) triumphed in Vienna, Beethoven wrote the first version of "Fidelio," and Salieri, at the age of fifty-four, gave up the composition of opera.

"This engagingly written, meticulously detailed book on Antonio Salieri's career as an opera composer finally accords Salieri and his operas the serious treatment they deserve."  Dorothea Link, Notes (Music Library Association)

"The scope and interest of John A. Rice's book are much wider than its rather dry (but perhaps unavoidable) title suggests: it is, indeed, hard to think of a publication which offers such a vivid evocation of Viennese court and musical life in the late 18th century. Superbly organized, elegantly written and thoughtfully illustrated, . . . this book is an indispensable and highly readable guide to the operatic Vienna which Mozart knew." John Stone, BBC Music Magazine

"As a musical biography devoted to Salieri's operas, detailed, richly contextualized, and historically informed, this volume represents the kind of comprehensive study that, surprisingly, is still not available on Mozart's operas."  Jessica Waldoff, JAMS

"This thoroughly researched and handsomely produced volume sets a new standard in studies of late 18th-century Viennese opera."  Caryl Clark, Opera Canada

"Rice's many strengths as a historian of music include a vivid historical imagination: the precise circumstances of the creation and production of works are often graphically recreated, with quotations from many different sources, with meticulous attention to the capacities, histories, and popularity of the singers, with connections made to what both Salieri and his audience could have known as they watched a première, and with a large number of beautifully reproduced illustrations, as well as a wealth of musical examples. The colour plates of the costumes from a contemporary Polish production of Axur are quite stunning, and the many pictures of singers help to bring the place and time to life."  Mary Hunter, Journal of the Royal Musical Association

Eine Monographie zum musikdramatischen Schaffen Antonio Salieris war lange Zeit ein Desiderat der Opernforschung. Die hier vorliegende Studie liefert nun ein gleichermaßen bewunderungswürdiges wie faszinierendes Ergebnis und schließt eine Lücke in der Wiener Operngeschichte. . . Diese Monographie ist ein 'großer Wurf,' ein Buch, das durch klare Sprache und Darstellung besticht und dem man viele aufmerksame Leser wünscht."  Thomas Betzwieser, Österreichische Musikzeitschrift

L’Apoteosi della musica di Giuseppe Sigismondo (1739-1826) è un’opera imprescindibile per coloro i quali intraprendono lo studio del repertorio musicale napoletano del Settecento. Frequentemente citati negli studi sui musicisti di scuola napoletana, i quattro tomi manoscritti dell’Apoteosi della musica sono oggi conservati alla Staatsbibliothek di Berlino, dopo essere passati per diverse collezioni transalpine. Propongono l’autobiografia musicale dell’autore, note sulla musica sacra e sul teatro d’opera; la storia della fondazione della prima biblioteca musicale pubblica presso il Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini; la storia quella dei quattro conservatori di musica e sui loro maestri; una ricca serie di medaglioni biografici dedicati a Orazio Vecchi, Tomaso Carapella, Egidio Duni, Leonardo Vinci, Giovan Battista Pergolesi, Nicolò Porpora, Domenico Cimarosa, Francesco Mancini, Pasquale Cafaro, Antonio Sacchini, Leonardo Leo, Francesco Durante, Tommaso Traetta, Nicola Sala e Nicolò Piccinni. L’edizione moderna dell’Apoteosi della musica consente agli studiosi di poter agevolmente accedere a notizie di fondamentale importanza sui compositori di formazione napoletana, sulla didattica del canto, sui luoghi della musica a Napoli, sul nucleo originario della Biblioteca del Conservatorio ‘San Pietro a Majella’. A complete English translation is also available.

From September 1781 to October 1782, Grand Duke Paul, son of Empress Catherine the Great and heir to the Russian throne, and his wife Maria Feodorovna toured Europe. Despite traveling incognito (as the Counts of the North, in Italian the Conti del Nord) all of Europe knew who they were and every city treated them as celebrities.

The grand duke and duchess loved music and theater. It was natural that opera should play a crucial role in the festivities with which they were welcomed everywhere. Since the Russian court had established a tradition of hiring the best Italian opera composers—Galuppi, Paisiello—as music directors, young composers such as Cimarosa probably regarded the grand-ducal tour as an opportunity to display their talent, in the hope that they might one day be summoned to Russia.

One of several operas that the Russians heard in Italy was Cimarosa’s Il convito. On 7 April 1782, an audience in Florence that included the Conti del Nord was especially pleased with an ensemble, according to the Gazzetta toscana:

Domenico sera comparvero nel Regio Teatro di via della Pergola insieme con le Loro Altezze Reali ed arciduca Francesco per trovarsi presenti alla rappresentanza di un Dramma ivi per la prima volta esposto in scena, che ha per titolo il Convito messo in musica dal celebre Maestro Cimarosa. Trovasi in esso un bellissimo quartetto di nuova invenzione, che sempre vien fatto replicare tanto ha incontrato il genio della numerosa udienza, ed i finali ancora sono molto stimati.

“Un bellissimo quartetto di nuova invenzione”—the phrase raises several questions. What was this quartet? What was it that the audience in Florence found so beautiful? What does “di nuova invenzione” mean? After an overview of the musical component of the Russians’ grand tour, this paper proposes answers to these questions and considers Cimarosa’s quartet against the background of the tour and of the potential benefits that the composer might have gained from favorably impressing the Conti del Nord.