''Il maestro di cappella'' is an

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

tic

intermezzo In music, an intermezzo (, , plural form: intermezzi), in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work. In music history, the term ha ...

in one act by

Domenico Cimarosa Domenico Cimarosa (; 17 December 1749 – 11 January 1801) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is ''Il matrimonio segreto'' (1792); most of his ...

. (Though often translated in English as ''The Music Teacher,'' the Italian term ''maestro di cappella'' is the equivalent of the German ''

kapellmeister (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

'' — "master of the choir or orchestra".) The first known performance of the work was on 2 July 1793 in Berlin, Germany. However, it is likely that this was not the premier production, and music historians believe the opera debuted some time between 1786 and 1792. The author of the opera's

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

is now unknown.Domenico Cimarosa
/ref> An amusing monodrama for a

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...

, the opera portrays a pompous maestro rehearsing an orchestra, often imitating the sound of the instruments. Always popular with great ''

buffo ''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...

s'' (such as

Fernando Corena Fernando Corena (22 December 1916 – 26 November 1984) was a Swiss bass who had a major international opera career from the late 1940s through the early 1980s. He enjoyed a long and successful career at the Metropolitan Opera between 1954 and 1 ...

and

Sesto Bruscantini Sesto Bruscantini (10 December 1919 – 4 May 2003) was an Italian baritone, one of the greatest buffo singers of the post-war era, especially renowned in Mozart and Rossini. Biography and career Bruscantini was born in Civitanova Marche, Marche, ...

), it continues to be regularly performed. A typical performance runs slightly under 20 minutes. The only extant complete version of this work, according to Marco Brolli, is a vocal score for bass-baritone and piano that was published in 1810 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

.Marco Brolli, "Il Maestro di Capella," in liner notes to the recording ''Haydn 2032. No. 4. Il Distratto'' by Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico. Catalog number Alpha674. For this reason, the versions heard today require completion and orchestration by an editor. The 1960 Fernando Corena recordingVariously reissued; referenced edition used here is London/Decca catalog number 433 036-2, paired with Donizetti's ''Don Pasquale.'' gives a version "revised and orchestrated by Maffeo Zanon" (1882-1968), while the more recent recording with Il Giardino Armonico''Haydn 2032. No. 4. Il Distratto'' by Giovanni Antonini and Il Giardino Armonico. Catalog number Alpha674. uses Brolli's critical edition and orchestration.

References

;Notes ;Sources *Anderson, James, ''The Complete Dictionary of Opera & Operetta'' Wings Books, 1993

External links

Online Italian libretto of Il maestro di cappella
Italian-language operas Operas by Domenico Cimarosa Operas Intermezzi 1793 operas One-act operas {{italian-opera-stub