Cimarosa, Domenico

Domenico Cimarosa – I Due Baroni di Rocca Azzurra

(b. Aversa, Kingdom of Naples, 17. December 1749 – d. Venice, 11. January 1801)

Sinfonia

Preface
Domenico Cimarosa, or Cimmarosa as his baptism certificate reads, was the son of humble nonmusical parents, a stonemason and a laundress from Naples. Through his schooling at the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, he became a fluent violinist, organist, composer and singer. While he was in school, he mostly composed masses and sacred motets, but in 1771 he wrote his first comic intermezzo and is was then that his fame began to spread. Throughout his career, Cimarosa had an array of versatile jobs, both through the church and courts. His positions took him to the Neapolitan Royal Chapel, the St Petersburg court, and Vienna. He was appointed as the head organist of Vienna’s Royal Chapel in 1797. There he composed new operas, including two serious operas while he edited previous compositions. Cimarosa was arrested, however, in 1799 due to political turmoil and disagreements. He spent four months in prison, was spared from the death sentence, and returned to Venice only to suffer from his rapidly declining health. In the midst of composing a new opera, Cimarosa passed away from illness on January 11, 1801.

Cimarosa was relatively well-known during his lifetime. Most of his output consisted of comic stage works, which were performed on all of the major European stages. He was particularly well-received in Vienna and Eszterháza, where Haydn conducted thirteen of Cimarosa’s operas. I Due Baroni di Rocca Azzura (The Two Barons from Rocca Azzura) is a setting of Giuseppe Palomba’s libretto for an intermezzo comic opera in two acts. The correct orthography for this opera is I Due Baroni di Rocca Azzura. The opera was performed for about thirty years in Europe and it saw several edits and renditions during that time. Even Mozart wrote a new aria for one of the opera’s performances in Vienna in 1789. The original manuscript can be found at the Biblioteca del Conservatorio di Musica S. Pietro a Majella in Naples, Italy. Additional manuscripts are located in Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek in Dresden, Germany, the Music Library at Western University Canada in London, Ontario Canada and the Bibliothèque municipale in Lille, France. ..

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