Simone Perugini - Cimarosa: Opera Overtures, Vol. 1 (2021)

Domenico Cimarosa (Aversa, 1749 - Venice, 1801). OPERA OVERTURES VOL. 1: I traci amanti; Cantata a tre voci fatta per l'Eminentissimo Cardinale De Bernis; Il fanatico burlato; I nemici generosi; Penelope; L'imprudente fortunato; Le stravaganze del Conte; I finti nobili; Artemisia; Le trame deluse. LINER NOTES: Domenico Cimarosa, during his career, probably composed about 65 operas. The library of the Neapolitan San Pietro a Majella Conservatory keeps the partially holograph scores of 54 titles. The manuscripts have been catalogued as “partially holograph” because, in the greater part of them, almost all the Overtures, Arias and Ensembles were written by hand by the composer, who often added to the volumes also a title page with the opera title, the date of first performance and the name of the theatre where the work was performed at its debut, but the Recitativi Secchi [Recitativos composed only with the accompaniment of Basso Continuo] were composed by the so-called Maestri Terzi [Third Composers]. Cimarosa, except for very rare cases, prepared an introductive Overture for all his works. After this paragraph, there is a table where are collected and described all the partially holograph manuscripts of the composer kept at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory library. All the operas have been divided by year of composition, with the indication of the title, the name of the theatre in which they were performed for the first time and a concise analysis of the Overture (with the indication of the number of movements, the tonality, and the Time and Tempo signatures). The composer, in all his Overtures, uses two musical structures current in his time: the three-movements and the one-movement forms; the last one being often introduced by a short Andante section. Very rarely does Cimarosa use also a structure in two movements that, as we will see, is only a simplification of the one in three movements. The three-movement Overtures, typical of the Neapolitan Operatic School, whose origin goes back to Alessandro Scarlatti, consist of a first rapid movement where Cimarosa introduces musical thematic episodes made up of quick rhythmical elements, generally assigned to the first Violins (as the second ones realize an omorhythmical accompaniment very similar to the Basso Albertino style or double the first Violins at the perfect lower octave). The Violas double the Harmonic Bass (realized by the Violoncellos and Double Basses) at the perfect higher octave or, rarely, double the first Violins part at the perfect lower octave.