Wednesday 14 November 2018

Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage

Sophia Baddeley, Robert Baddeley, Thomas King by Johan Zoffany in The Clandestine Marriage in 1769.
Sophia Baddeley, Robert Baddeley, Thomas King by Johan Zoffany
in The Clandestine Marriage in 1769.
The Neapolitan composer Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) probably wrote around 80 operas which were popular across Europe. As well as his native Naples, he worked all over Italy as well as at the court of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg and at the court of Emperor Leopold II (for whose coronation Mozart wrote La clemenza di Tito) in Vienna. His comic opera Il matrimonio segreto (written in Vienna in 1792) was regarded as an exemplar of the opera buffa style and admired by later composers such as Verdi. It was based on an English play, The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick which premiered in 1766 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (there is a Zoffany picture of a 1769 performance, see above).

Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO) is giving us a chance to re-visit the sparkling wit of this comedy [I have very happy memories of British Youth Opera's staging in 2013, see my review]. HGO's staging is directed by Sinéad O’Neill and conducted by Chris Hopkins at Jacksons Lane Theatre, 269A Archway Rd, London N6, and opens on 16 November 2018, double cast with a talented team of young singers.

Further information from the Hampstead Garden Opera website.


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