CIMAROSA, DOMENICO (1749-18o1), Italian musical composer, was born at Aversa, in the kingdom of Naples, Dec. 17, 1749. His parents were poor, but anxious to give their son a good education, and of ter removing to Naples they sent him to a free school connected with one of the monasteries of that city. He obtained a free scholarship at the musical institute of Santa Maria di Loreto, where he remained for eleven years, studying chiefly the great masters of the old Italian school. Piccini, Sacchini and other musicians of repute are mentioned amongst his teachers. At the age of twenty-three Cimarosa be gan his career as a composer with a comic opera called Le Strava ganze del Conte, first performed at the Teatro dei Fiorentini at Naples in 1772. The work met with approval as did its suc cessors Le Pazzie di Stellidanza e di Zoroastro, a farce full of humour and eccentricity, and another comic opera called L'Ital iana in Londra. From 1784-87 Cimarosa lived at Florence, and wrote the following works for the theatre of that city :—Caio Mario; the three biblical operas, Assalone, La Giuditta and Il Sacrificio d'Abramo; also Il Convito di Pietra; and La Ballerina amante, a pretty comic opera first performed at Venice with enormous success.
About the year 1788 Cimarosa went to St. Petersburg (Lenin grad) by invitation of the empress Catherine II. In 1792 he went to Vienna at the invitation of the emperor Leopold II. Here he produced his masterpiece, Il Matrimonio segreto which ranks amongst the highest achievements of light operatic music. In he returned to Naples, where Il Matrimonio segreto and other works were received with great applause. Amongst the works be longing to his last stay in Naples may be mentioned the charming opera Le Astuzie feminili, which during recent years has been adapted with great success as one of the productions of the Diaghilev Ballet.
This period of his life is said to have been embittered by the intrigues of envious and hostile persons, amongst whom figured his old rival Paisiello. During the occupation of Naples by the troops of the French Republic, Cimarosa joined the Liberal party, and on the return of the Bourbons, was, like many of his political friends, condemned to death. By the interces ion of influential admirers his sentence was commuted into banishment. But his health was broken, and after much suffering he died at Venice Jan. 18oI, of inflammation of the intestines. The na ture of his disease led to the rumour of his having been poisoned by his enemies, which, however, a formal inquest proved to be unfounded.