Italian musicians have long been renowned for their compositions, and were a prime ‘export commodity’ in eighteenth-century Europe. Louis XIV employed Jean-Baptiste Lully, born Giovanni Battista Lulli in Florence, the Russian court had Giovanni Paisiello, the Habsburg Antonio Salieri, and Luigi Cherubini worked extensively in France. Domenico Cimarosa worked at Saint Petersburg and later in Vienna, where he was hired as Kapellmeister at the time when Giovanni Bertati was the court’s poet. The Italian pair gave birth to Cimarosa’s most famous opera: The Secret Marriage. The opera debuted at the Burgtheater on February 7, 1792. Its lively music complements the colourful vicissitudes that make up its plot. The Secret Marriage (Il matrimonio segreto) will be performed at the Fenice Theatre on February 10.

Featured image: William Hogarth, Marriage à la mode, II, “Il tête à tête”