Recording
Title: Il Matrimonio Segreto
Performers: Badioli, Ratti, Sciuti, Stignani, Orchestra del Teatro de La Scala di Milano
Director: Nino Sanzogno
Year: 1956
Length: 2 hours
Review
Firstly I would not necessarily recommend this version of the Opera. This version is missing the recitatives and if you are interested in the story you will need them. For that you can get the Barenboim version which also has the advantage of being more recent.
But then it is hard to know if you would want a copy of this in the first place. Ok, Cimarosa is only second to Mozart in opera composition in the Classical era... well... that is faint praise at best, being second-place to Mozart makes his exponentially worse than Mozart.
If this is the best Cimarosa opera, as seems to be the consensus, it is sorely lacking in the sophistication of Mozart, both in musical and dramatic terms. It is comparable in terms of subject to the three De La Ponte operas (Nozze, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte), and that is about it. It can be mildly amusing, and some of the arias are also mildly amusing, but there is very little juice here, no staggering pieces or emotional depth to the characters. So, eh.
Final Grade
7/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Cimarosa's only work still to be regularly performed, it is arguably one of the greatest 18th century opera buffa apart from those by Mozart. Its premiere was the occasion of the longest encore in operatic history; Leopold II was so delighted that he ordered supper served to the company and the entire opera repeated immediately after.
Cara Non Dubitar:
Title: Il Matrimonio Segreto
Performers: Badioli, Ratti, Sciuti, Stignani, Orchestra del Teatro de La Scala di Milano
Director: Nino Sanzogno
Year: 1956
Length: 2 hours
Review
Firstly I would not necessarily recommend this version of the Opera. This version is missing the recitatives and if you are interested in the story you will need them. For that you can get the Barenboim version which also has the advantage of being more recent.
But then it is hard to know if you would want a copy of this in the first place. Ok, Cimarosa is only second to Mozart in opera composition in the Classical era... well... that is faint praise at best, being second-place to Mozart makes his exponentially worse than Mozart.
If this is the best Cimarosa opera, as seems to be the consensus, it is sorely lacking in the sophistication of Mozart, both in musical and dramatic terms. It is comparable in terms of subject to the three De La Ponte operas (Nozze, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutte), and that is about it. It can be mildly amusing, and some of the arias are also mildly amusing, but there is very little juice here, no staggering pieces or emotional depth to the characters. So, eh.
Final Grade
7/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
Cimarosa's only work still to be regularly performed, it is arguably one of the greatest 18th century opera buffa apart from those by Mozart. Its premiere was the occasion of the longest encore in operatic history; Leopold II was so delighted that he ordered supper served to the company and the entire opera repeated immediately after.
Cara Non Dubitar:
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