CIMARO'SA, DOMENI'CO, one of the most celebrated composers of the Italian theatre, was born at Naples in 1754. To Aprile he was indebted for his first instructions in music, but he completed his studies under Durante at the Conservatorio of Loretto. His general education was also of is superior kind, and he was not only esteemed for his professional ability, but for his well-informed mind and amiable temper. The first work that made him known was L'Italiana iu Londra,' performed in 1779. But it is `II Matrimonio Segreto ' which will transmit his namo to posterity; for of his thirty operas, most of which were in their day the admiration of all amateurs, the last mentioned is the only one now ever performed. When this was brought out at Vienna it so delighted the Emperor Joseph II., that at its conclusion he invited the singers and band to a supper, then sent them back to the theatre, and the whole piece was repeated; the only instance on record of the encore of an entire opera. In 1787 Cimarosa
was invited by the Empress Catharine to St. Petersburg, where ho produced three operas. He returned to Naples, and having shown no little partiality for the French during their occupation of that city, very narrowly escaped the sanguinary proscription which dis graced the restoration of the old royal family. He died at Venice in 1801.
Cimarosa excelled most in comic opera, but his Orazi e Curiazi ' proves that he could compose well in a different style. He is the link which unites the old and modern schools, his scores exhibiting an instrumentation much stronger than that of Paisiello, though inferior in vigour and richness to that of Mozart.