Biography
Domenico Cimarosa was born on 17 December 1749 in Aversa in the Kingdom of Naples and died on 11 January 1801 in Venice. Trained at the Santa Maria di Loreto conservatory in Naples, he made his debut in 1772 with the comic opera „Le stravaganze del conte“ at the Teatro dei Fiorentini and went on to write more than 80 operas over the following decades – around 60 comic and 20 serious works – that made him, alongside Giovanni Paisiello, the most popular opera composer of his time. From 1787 to 1791 he served as court composer to Catherine II in Saint Petersburg, then moved to Vienna as court Kapellmeister, where he wrote his most enduring work, „Il matrimonio segreto“, in 1792. He returned to Naples in 1793; after the restoration of Bourbon rule in 1799 he was arrested and sentenced to death for his ties to the short-lived Parthenopean Republic, but influential supporters had the sentence commuted to exile. He died in exile in Venice in 1801, probably of cancer; an inquest found unfounded the rumours that Bourbon agents had poisoned him.
On Stagelog
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