Il matrimonio segreto

THE PICCOLO THEATRE

Domenico Cimarosa

Il matrimonio segreto

opera buffa in two acts

Performed in Italian

(with Kazakh and Russian subtitles)

Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes (with one interval)

Please note that the age limit is 10+

Management reserves the right to substitute artists

Libretto by Giovanni Bertati,

based on the eponymous English comedy by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick

Premiere: 7 February 1792 at the Vienna Court Theatre

Premiere at the Astana Opera House: 30 September, 1, 3, 4, 7 October 2021

Il matrimonio segreto was a success from the very beginning and remains the only one of Domenico Cimarosa’s sixty-five operas that is still listened to in our century.

The well-travelled Italian composer had just returned from Russia, where he served as court composer to Catherine the Great, to take up a similar post in Vienna – a post that Mozart so longed for. He wrote Il matrimonio segreto for the court of Emperor Leopold II. The monarch was so delighted with the opera that (as the story goes) he invited the performers to dine with him and then demanded an encore of the entire work. Opera history knows no other encore of such duration

The plot of the opera abounds in intricate love entanglements. The action unfolds in the household of old Geronimo, a wealthy merchant who has two daughters, Elisetta and Carolina, and a sister, Fidalma, a wealthy widow. He also has an intelligent young secretary, Paolino. Geronimo dreams of aristocratic suitors for his daughters, unaware that the younger Carolina has secretly married Paolino.

To please his father-in-law, Paolino finds the impoverished Count Robinson who is willing to marry into Geronimo’s family in exchange for a handsome dowry. But contrary to Paolino’s expectations, the Count wants to marry not the elder Elisetta, but Carolina. Meanwhile, Fidalma decides to arrange her own love life – and sets her sights on Paolino...

What follows is a whirlwind of misunderstandings, comic situations, and scenes of jealousy, all leading, at last, to a happy ending.

Cimarosa’s work, like that of many of his contemporaries, was deeply influenced by Mozart’s genius. The composer inherited the classical structure of opera, focusing on the traditions of European literary satire.

Il matrimonio segreto features numerous ensemble scenes, which make its musical palette and dramatic structure diversified.

This work is an excellent example of the development and refinement of the dramma giocoso style, which took root during the Romantic period.

Cimarosa’s masterpiece, in the words of Eduard Hanslick, “has that genuine, light, golden colour which is the only fitting one for a musical comedy… Everything in this music sparkles and shimmers like pearls so naturally and joyfully that the listener can only take delight.”

Domenico Cimarosa made a distinctive contribution to the evolution of comic opera, in many ways summing up over sixty years of the genre’s development and paving the way for the achievements of his great compatriot Gioachino Rossini.

MAIN ROLES AND PERFORMERS:

GERONIMO         –      Altynbek ABILDA, Laureate of the State Youth Prize “Daryn”

COUNT ROBINSON – Yevgeniy CHAINIKOV, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

CAROLINA         –       Yelena GANZHA

ELISETTA          –        Guldana ALDADOSSOVA

PAOLINO            –       Alikhan ZEINOLLA

FIDALMA           –        Saltanat MURATBEKOVA

ARTISTIC AND PRODUCTION TEAM:

Music Director and Conductor – Abzal Mukhitdin, People’s Artist of Kazakhstan

Conductor – Ruslan Baimurzin, Holder of the Order of Kurmet

Artistic and Stage Director of the Production – Ala Simonishvili

Assistant Director – Gulsara Meirambekova

Set and Costume Designer – Manana Gunia

Choreographer – Galiya Buribayeva, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

Opera Company Director – Talgat Mussabayev , Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

Project Technical Director – Victor Carare

Lighting Designer – Sergey Kulak

Accompanists – Aisha Askarova

Project Coordinator – Marzhan Zhakenova, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, OPERA SOLOISTS AND EXTRAS

OF THE ASTANA OPERA HOUSE

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