This is the first book in English about Domenico Cimarosa, his more than 65 operas and his sacred and secular vocal music, his keyboard music, and his various works for solo instruments and ensembles. This is also the first authoritative book on Cimarosa since an Italian biography published in 1939. Since that earlier tome was published, many important discoveries have come to light. The authors completed most of their research work at the library of the Conservatorio di musica S Pietro a Majella in Naples. Their efforts have uncovered new information on the composer's marriages, wives, children, actual performance locations, dates of first performances of his operas, and his professional appointments and contacts. The first half of the book is devoted to a chronological description of Cimarosa's life and provides background material on the customs of the times and contemporary descriptions of the music conservatories in Naples where Cimarosa studied, as well as those in Venice where he was appointed Maestro. The second part presents an alphabetical listing of Cimarosa's more than 65 operas, including alternate names for those that were produced on different stages under different names. Included with each opera is a simple outline of the plot, the cast of characters and their voice ranges, and basic information about the structure of the music itself.

The Cimarosa Affair is a collection of essays written by Simone Perugini and translated by Elizabeth Thomson. With his latest studies, Simone Perugini sheds new light on the life of the Italian composer, Domenico Cimarosa, one of the greatest exponents of the Neapolitan School in the second half of the 18th century. Using contemporary documentary sources discovered recently in various state archives in Italy, and analysing the scores and the librettos of Cimarosa’s operas, Simone Perugini retraces aspects of Cimarosa’s personal and professional life which were either unknown, or incorrectly reported, before this detailed study.

From 1637 to the middle of the eighteenth century, Venice was the world center for operatic activity. No exact chronology of the Venetian stage during this period has previously existed in any language. This reference work, the culmination of two decades of research throughout Europe, provides a secure ordering of 800 operas and 650 related works from the period 1660 to 1760. Derived from thousands of manuscript news-sheets and other unpublished materials, the Chronology provides a wealth of new information on about 1500 works. Each entry in this production-based survey provides not only perfunctory reference information but also a synopsis of the text, eyewitness accounts, and pointers to surviving musical scores. What emerges, in addition to secure dates, is a profusion of new information about events, personalities, patronage, and the response of opera to changing political and social dynamics. Appendixes and supplements provide basic information in Venetian history for music, drama, and theater scholars who are not specialists in Italian studies.