2021 / 2022 K. Baiseitova Chamber Hall the 9th Season
13 November * Saturday * 6.00 pm
14 November * Sunday * 6.00 pm
THE PICCOLO THEATRE
Domenico Cimarosa
Il matrimonio segreto
opera buffa in two acts
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
ARTISTIC AND PRODUCTION TEAM:
Conductor: Abzal Mukhitdin, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Conductor: Ruslan Baimurzin
Artistic and Stage Director of the Production: Ala Simonishvili
Set and Costume Designer: Manana Gunia
Choreographer: Galiya Buribayeva, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Opera Company Director: Azamat Zheltyrguzov, Honoured Worker of Kazakhstan
Project Technical Director: Viсtor Carare
Lighting Designer: Sergey Kulak
Assistant Directors: Altynganym Akhmetova, Ainur Khalelova
Accompanists: Yelena Sakhno, Irina Kurguzkina, Meruert Zhekenova, Zhanyl
Rakhimbekova, Saltanat Akbasova, Aishabibi Askarova, Zaru Zhazykbayeva
Project Coordinator: Marzhan Zhakenova
Il matrimonio segreto was a success from the very beginning and remains the only
one of 65 operas by Domenico Cimarosa, which is listened to in our century.
The well- travelled Italian composer had just returned from Russia, where he was
the court composer of 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 liked the opera so much that he (this is how the story tells) invited the actors
to dinner, after which he demanded an encore. The world history of opera knows no other
such long-lasting encore.
The plot of the opera is replete with complex love twists and turns. The action takes
place in the household of old Geronimo, a wealthy merchant; he has two daughters,
Elisetta and Carolina, and a sister Fidalma, a wealthy young 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.
Paolino, to please his father-in-law, finds the impoverished Count Robinson, ready
to intermarry with the Geronimo family for a rich dowry. But contrary to the calculations
of Paolino, the count wants to marry not the older Elisetta, but Carolina. Fidalma also
decides to arrange a personal life and chooses Paolino...
This is followed by a series of misunderstandings, comic situations and scenes of
jealousy with an awaited happy ending.
The work of Cimarosa, like that of many of his contemporaries, was strongly
influenced by Mozart's genius. The composer inherited the classical structure of the
operatic form, focusing on the traditions of European literary satire.
Il matrimonio segreto contains many ensemble scenes, which make its musical
palette and dramatic structure diversified.
This work is an excellent example of the development and deepening of the dramma
giocoso style, which took root during the period of romanticism.
Cimarosa's masterpiece “has that genuine light, golden colour which is the only
fitting one for a musical comedy… Everything in this music springs and shimmers with
pearls so easily and joyfully that the listener can only enjoy” (E. Hanslick).
Domenico Cimarosa made his original contribution to the development of comic
opera, in many respects summing up more than 60 years of the development of this
genre, paving the way for the achievements of his great compatriot Gioacchino Rossini.
ROLES AND PERFORMERS:
GERONIMO – Altynbek ABILDA
COUNT ROBINSON – Yevgeniy CHAINIKOV
CAROLINA – Libuse SANTORISOVA (Czech Republic) / Yelena GANZHA
ELISETTA – Alfiya KARIMOVA, People's Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan
PAOLINO – Narul TOIKENOV
FIDALMA – Malika MINISINI / Tatyana VITSINSKAYA
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, OPERA SOLOISTS AND EXTRAS OF THE ASTANA
OPERA HOUSE
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes (with one interval)
Performed in Italian
(with Kazakh and Russian subtitles)
Management reserves the right to substitute artists
