About the work
Domenico Cimarosa wrote „L'impresario in angustie“, a one-act farsa per musica, to a libretto by Giuseppe Maria Diodati. It premiered in the autumn of 1786 at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, near the end of his first Neapolitan period, before his engagement at the Russian imperial court.
Plot
An opera impresario is worn down by his own company: an incompetent librettist, an unlucky composer and three prima donnas with clashing artistic demands argue over subject, music and costumes. Alongside the theatrical satire runs a romantic subplot that closes with a wedding duet.
Cultural significance
The farce spread quickly from Lisbon to Copenhagen; Goethe saw it during his journey to Italy and later produced a German version, staged in Weimar in 1791. After a long absence from the stage, it is now regarded as Cimarosa's second-best-known opera after „Il matrimonio segreto“.