Cimarosa: L'infedeltà fedele

Domenico Cimarosa (1749–1801) wrote his fourteenth opera, L’infedeltà fedele,  for the 1779 inauguration of the Real Teatro del Fondo di Separazione, a theater that was built to provide a venue for the Neapolitan nobility to attend performances of opera buffa. Cimarosa worked together with Giambattista Lorenzi (1721–1807), and they strove to combine seria and buffa elements within the work. Cimarosa's music was also designed to showcase the considerable talents of the vocal staff of the new theater. Particularly impressive are the complicated ensemble finales for acts 1 and 2, which include innovative large-scale harmonic designs. In addition to its premiere in Naples, performances are documented in Rome and Dresden. Joseph Haydn owned a copy of the score and adapted its libretto and borrowed the harmonic design of the finales for his own opera, La fedeltà premiata (1781). The present edition draws upon the composer's autograph as well as the manuscript copes in Budapest, Dresden, and Rome.