Domenico Cimarosa 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 operas are comedies. He also wrote instrumental works and church music.
The Clandestine Marriage is a comedy by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick, first performed in 1766 at Drury Lane. It is both a comedy of manners and a comedy of errors. The idea came from a series of pictures by William Hogarth entitled Marriage à-la-mode.
Luis Ernesto Alva y Talledo, better known as Luigi Alva is a Peruvian operatic tenor. A Mozart and Rossini specialist, Alva achieved fame with roles such as Don Ottavio, Count Almaviva and Fenton. He retired from the stage in 1989.
Il segreto di Susanna is an intermezzo in one act by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari to an Italian libretto by Enrico Golisciani. The opera premiered in 1909 and is the most frequently performed of all of Wolf-Ferrari's works. The overture of the work has become a well known concert piece.The opera tell's the story of a husband who suspects his wife is having an affair after discovering she smells like cigarettes; only later to discover that her secret is that she is a smoker. Musicologist John C.G. Waterhouse, wrote the following: "Il segreto di Susanna owes its success partly to its disarming simplicity. Lasting barely 45 minutes, with only two singing characters, it is conveniently cheap to produce; and the slender but distinctive idea of the libretto, combined with the elegant if rather miscellaneous charm of the music, has an obvious appeal which even subsequent cancer research has not seriously undermined."
Graziella Sciutti was an Italian soprano opera singer and later vocal teacher and opera producer.
Natalie Bodanya was an American operatic soprano who had an active international career from the late 1920s through the 1940s. She notably sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1937 through 1942 and was a performer with the New York City Opera during the company's 1943-1944 inaugural season.
Sesto Bruscantini was an Italian baritone, one of the greatest buffo singers of the post-war era, especially renowned in Mozart and Rossini.
Eugenia Ratti was an Italian soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory. A lyric coloratura soprano of considerable charm, she excelled in soubrette roles in works by Cimarosa and Mozart such as Susanna, Zerlina, Despina, and in light Donizetti such as Adina, Norina, as well as Verdi's Oscar and Nannetta.
Manno Wolf-Ferrari was an Italian conductor, nephew of composer Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.
Nino Sanzogno was an Italian conductor and composer.
Ines Maria Ferraris was an Italian operatic soprano and pianist who sang for more than two decades at La Scala in addition to appearances on the international stage. Although popular in Italy, she had a particularly devoted fanbase throughout South America. A light lyric soprano with a pure and agile voice, Ferraris sang a wide repertoire that encompassed the verismo operas of Puccini, the Italian grand opera of Verdi, and the German operas of Richard Strauss. She is particularly remembered for portraying the role of Lisette in the world première of Puccini's La rondine in 1917.
Karl Scully is an Irish opera tenor.
Camille Everardi (1824–1899) was a Belgian operatic baritone who had an active international career during the 1850s through the 1870s. He particularly excelled in the works of Vincenzo Bellini and Gioachino Rossini. Several music critics of his day likened his voice to that of Antonio Tamburini. He later had a highly successful second career as a voice teacher in the Russian Empire.
Elisa e Claudio, ossia L'amore protetto dall'amicizia is a two-act melodramma semiseria by the 19th Century Italian composer Saverio Mercadante from a libretto by Luigi Romanelli based on the play, Rosella by Filipo Casari. It received its premiere performance at La Scala in Milan on 30 October 1821.
Mary Shaw was an English classical contralto who had an active international career in concerts and operas during the 1830s and 1840s. She is best remembered today for creating the role of Cuniza in the world premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's first opera Oberto at La Scala in 1839.
Marietta Sacchi was an Italian operatic soprano who had an active career during the 1820s and 1830s.
Sara Mingardo is an Italian classical contralto who has had an active international career in concerts and operas since the 1980s. Her complete recording of Anna in Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens won a Gramophone Award and both the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording and the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 2002. Some of the other roles she has performed on stage or on disc include Andronico in Tamerlano, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, and the title roles in Carmen, Giulio Cesare, Riccardo Primo, and Rinaldo. She has also recorded several Vivaldi cantatas, Bach cantatas, and such concert works as Mozart's Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater, and Vivaldi's Gloria among others.
Francesco Benucci was an Italian bass/baritone singer of the 18th century. He sang a number of important roles in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Antonio Salieri and other composers.
Carolina Crespi, later known as Carolina Crespi-Bianchi and Carolina Bianchi, was an Italian soprano active on the opera stages of Paris and Northern Italy from 1803 to 1820. She was born in Prague, the daughter of the soprano Luigia Prosperi-Crespi (1770–1824). Crespi was married to the tenor Eliodoro Bianchi and appeared with him in three world premieres at La Scala.
Marie Perbost is a French operatic soprano.
