Il matrimonio segreto

Eduard Hanslick already spoke of a "secret marriage" between Cimarosa and Mozart and pointed to the touching and yet very comic handling of Il matrimonio segreto and its melodic weightlessness. The librettist Giovanni Bertati transferred the English original to Italy and adapted the satire of the play to the commedia dell'arte. Domenico Cimarosa, who had accepted the invitation of Emperor Leopold II to succeed Antonio Salieri as court composer in Vienna, wrote the music.

Carolina, the younger daughter of the rich merchant Geronimo, secretly marries her lover Paolino, a simple assistant in her father's house. When Count Robinson is proposed by her father as a suitable bridegroom for the older sister Elisetta, but then falls in love with the (already married) Carolina, chaos takes its course. Since its premiere in 1792 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Il matrimonio segreto is the only opera buffa of the 18th century that is still performed today alongside Mozart's masterpieces.