“Il matrimonio segreto” by Domenico Cimarosa is the opera buffa par excellence. It is all the more astonishing that to this day there is no reliable edition that takes all sources into account. The new edition from the series "Masterpieces of Italian Opera" now remedies this.

“Il matrimonio segreto” by Domenico Cimarosa is one of the few 18th-century operas that has remained in the repertory uninterruptedly since its premiere in 1792. Commissioned by Emperor Leopold II as part of a cultural program aimed at reorganizing the Viennese musical and theatrical life, this drama giocoso has been admired by generations of musicians and intellectuals and considered as an ideal link between the production of Mozart (who had died just two months before the opera’s premiere) and the works of the following generation of Italian opera composers, such as Mayr, Paer, Fioravanti, Pavesi, Morlacchi, Spontini, up to Rossini. The immediate success of Il matrimonio is attested by numerous performances that took place within the first ten years since its composition in the most important European theaters (Prague, Lipsia, Dresden, Berlin, Paris, London – under Da Ponte’s supervision – Lisbon, Madrid, Copenhagen, Venice, Milan and many others). Circulating in various translations (French, English, German, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, and Dutch), the dissemination of this masterpiece is demonstrated by the large number of copies still preserved in libraries around the world.

Despite this extraordinary fortune and popularity no critical edition has provided a detailed look at and analysis of two centuries of cuts, insertions, and reworking occurred during the countless theatrical productions. Thus far, only one complete modern edition has been realized – a piano reduction published by Franco Donatoni in 1976 – and even the scholarly literature specifically devoted to “Il matrimonio segreto” is quite sparse. The edition prepared by Guido Olivieri and Federico Gon for Bärenreiter’s “Masterpieces of Italian Opera“ series (general editors: Andreas Giger and Francesco Izzo) is therefore the first critical edition of Cimarosa’s masterpiece. It is based on the most recent musicological research and philological criteria and on a rigorous study of the autograph, complemented by careful readings of several other crucial testimonies. The central place of this masterwork and its impact on the evolution of the opera make even more urgent the need for a new critical edition and an in-depth investigation of the aspects connected to its production and reception, which will provide a new tool for a modern reception of this opera.

The source transmission and variants for this work are particularly complex and closely connected to the history of the opera itself. “Il matrimonio segreto” is a rare instance of an opera that received two “first” productions. After the premiere that took place on February 7, 1792 at the Burgtheater and following the sudden death of emperor Leopold a few weeks later, Cimarosa left Vienna. Breaking with a tradition that tended to leave to the court library the autograph of operas premiered in Vienna, Cimarosa instead took with him the autograph score of Il matrimonio. In the Spring of 1793, a new version of the opera was presented at the Teatro de’ Fiorentini in Naples with a “few alterations” (as stated in the libretto) made by the composer. Both the libretto and the autograph preserved in Naples bear traces of the substantial changes introduced by the composer, particularly in the first act. Cimarosa wrote a new ouverture, a new terzetto as an Introduction (“Quanto è dolce in sul mattino”), and moved Fidalma’s aria “È vero che in casa” to the second act. New recitatives were written by his collaborator Giuseppe Benevento and three new arias for Elisetta (“Quando sarà il momento” in Act 1 scene 3; “Aggitata dal contento” in Act 1 sc. 7; “Nel lasciarti, o sposo amato” in Act 2, sc. 15) were added, giving Elisetta a much more relevant role.

Given the absence of a holograph score for the Viennese first performance, the editors have located and taken into account other relevant sources besides the autograph and the libretto of the premiere to allow an accurate reconstruction of the original Viennese performance. The most reliable source connected to the Viennese performance is a manuscript copy – today held at the Berliner Staatsbibliothek – realized by Wenzel Sukowaty, the official copyist of the Viennese court theater. This copy matches perfectly the libretto for the Viennese production of 1792. It is therefore reasonable to assume that Sukowaty’s atelier prepared this commercial copy directly from the source left by Cimarosa in Vienna, a source that is indeed at the origin of the Viennese version of Il matrimonio segreto and is still the variant most frequently performed and best known.

Even the Sukowaty copy, however, presents several cuts and revisions that were inserted in subsequent performances. The MIO editors have thus restored missing, altered or unclear text through a careful review of other crucial sources, including manuscript copies of subsequent productions, surviving vocal and instrumental parts (used for the Dresden premiere in 1792) as well as several librettos and the opera’s first printed edition, published in Paris by Imbault in 1799 (which, however, does not include recitatives).
As for the Viennese version, the comparison between multiple sources has ensured, differently from the previous edition of the work, greater adherence to both the performance practice of the time and the author’s intentions, with editorial interventions that comprise both vocal lines and orchestral writing. The MIO critical edition restores Cimarosa’s indications concerning particular articulation, dynamics, and instrument doubling. Later performance interventions have been expunged and the score brought back as much as possible to the original composer’s intentions, following in general the most recent knowledge on late 18th-century performance practices. The score clearly specifies all editorial interventions: each change or correction has been carefully listed in the substantive critical commentary. Moreover, some significant issues – such as the use of transposing instruments and their peculiar clef indications, or the significance of large fermatas in the vocal part, used to signal flexibility or improvisation in the singers’ performance – are explained in detail in the extensive critical introduction.

The study of the most important sources for “Il matrimonio” has allowed the editors to trace two relatively stable textual traditions, one closely connected with the 1792 Viennese premiere and a second version, prepared for the Neapolitan production in 1793, which is indeed revealed through the surviving autograph. The MIO critical edition follows the Viennese premiere, but, given the direct role that Cimarosa had in the version presented in Naples, it also provides for the first time variants related to the Neapolitan performance in appendix. These alternative versions are ordered according to the relevance and proximity of the sources: first and foremost, the numbers added by Cimarosa and included in the autograph; then the three substitute arias for Elisetta, which are included in the Neapolitan libretto, but are actually not reproduced in the autograph. These arias have been retrieved in a manuscript now preserved in a private collection in Rome (Biblioteca privata dei Principi Massimo).

The new critical edition addresses all these issues in the critical introduction and apparatus, shedding light on both the Viennese and the Neapolitan versions. The inclusion of the variants offers the opportunity of performing Il matrimonio segreto – for the first time after centuries – according to the dramaturgy of the two versions. Thanks to a study conducted on the most relevant and reliable sources and directed to a critical approach to the performance history of this opera, the MIO critical edition is an essential tool to appreciate in a meticulous and reliable edition Cimarosa’s “Il matrimonio segreto”, a masterwork that represents the quintessence of the opera buffa tradition.

Guido Olivieri / Federico Gon
(July 2022)