Cimarosa - Il Matrimonio Segreto / Barbara Daniels, David Kuebler, Carlos Feller, Claudio Nicolai, Hilary Griffiths, Schwetzinger Festspiele
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Barbara Daniels, David Kuebler, Schwetzingen OperaBrand: Naxos OF America INC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 153 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Euroarts
Movie Reviews of Cimarosa - Il Matrimonio Segreto / Barbara Daniels, David Kuebler, Carlos Feller, Claudio Nicolai, Hilary Griffiths, Schwetzinger Festspiele
Movie Review: The music and comedy sparkle - a gem!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this DVD as a result of "Giordano Hussein Bruno's" favourable review above which I strongly endorse.
Domenico Cimarosa is sometimes described as a half-way house between Mozart and Rossini. This is a useful way of summarising his musical style, but it may mislead you into underestimating Cimarosa and it simplifies the chronology. (I can remember when I was a school child in the early 1950s Mozart was regarded as somehow "not profound" and a lightweight stopping place on the road from the first of the 3 big B's, Bach, to the second of the Big B's, Beethoven. Brahms was of course the 3rd Big B.)
Yes, Il Matrimonia Segreto, does perhaps sound closer to Rossini than Mozart, and was commissioned by the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Leopold not long after Mozart's death. However Cimarosa was born in 1749, 7 years before Mozart's birth year, and was ranked by many of his contemporaries more highly than Mozart. In retrospect it has become clear that Mozart was a genius of the first order, but it is a mistake to neglect lesser figures such as Cimarosa, who sometimes achieved works of outstanding brilliance such as ll Matrimonia Segreto.
While reading a book, I first tried playing the DVD with the visuals switched off - just to get some idea of the music. This was so delightful, it whetted my appetite to watch the opera.
I was not disappointed. ll Matrimonia Segreto takes place in Italy, but is based on an English comedy, The Clandestine Marriage, one of whose authors was the famous actor, David Garrick. So the opera has a strong, if absurd and hilarious story line. You know, of course, there will be a happy ending, but suspense is achieved, by wondering how the denouement will come about, which is postponed masterfully to a short and sizzling finish. The singers may be relatively little known, but they sing well, and their acting is outstanding. They all fit their roles exactly and have great stage presence. The ensemble singing has many highlights. There are also some delightful arias. For example, the secretly married heroine, Carolina, in trying to convince Count Robinson that he should not be courting her, as she is too ignorant to be the wife of a noble, sings about her inadequate knowledge of foreign languages. If she had to converse with a Frenchman, the only word she knew was "Monsieur", or an Englishman, she could only say "How do you do?", and if she met a German she had no words at all! Count Robinson, similarly tries to convince Carolina's less attractive sister, his intended, that he is totally unsuited for matrimony, claiming that he is a drunkard, a sleepwalker, a gambler and incorrigibly bad tempered.
Count Robinson, played and sung by Claudio Nicolai, steals the show - a generous, charming and worldly aristocrat who is more than a match for Carolina's deaf, bad-tempered, money-grubbing father, who is played by Carlos Feller, also marvelously. An interesting detail - all of the singers refer to Count Robinson as Il Conte Robinson-e, adding an Italian vowel at the end, except Carolina's father, who as a merchant perhaps was aware that the name should be pronounced without an added vowel.
More Cimarosa - Il Matrimonio Segreto / Barbara Daniels, David Kuebler, Carlos Feller, Claudio Nicolai, Hilary Griffiths, Schwetzinger Festspiele reviews:
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Summary of Cimarosa - Il Matrimonio Segreto / Barbara Daniels, David Kuebler, Carlos Feller, Claudio Nicolai, Hilary Griffiths, Schwetzinger Festspiele
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