usical composer, was born at
Aversa, in the kingdom of Naples, on the 17th of December 1749. His
parents were poor, but anxious to give their son a good education; and
after removing to Naples they sent him to a free school connected with
one of the monasteries of that city. The organist of the monastery,
Padre Polcano, was struck with the boy's intellect, and voluntarily
instructed him in the elements of music, as also in the ancient and
modern literature of his country. To his influence Cimarosa owed a free
scholarship at the musical institute of Santa Maria di Loreto, where he
remained for eleven years, studying chiefly the great masters of the old
Italian school. Piccini, Sacchini and other musicians of repute are
mentioned amongst his teachers. At the age of twenty-three Cimarosa
began his career as a composer with a comic opera called _Le Stravaganze
del Conte_, first performed at the Teatro dei Fiorentini at Naples in
1772. The work met with approval, and was followed in the same year by
_Le Pazzie di Stellidanza e di Zoroastro_, a farce full of humour and
eccentricity. This work also was successful, and the fame of the young
composer began to spread all over Italy. In 1774 he was invited to Rome
to write an opera for the _stagione_ of that year; and he there produced
another comic opera called _L'Italiana in Londra_.

The next thirteen years of Cimarosa's life are not marked by any event
worth mentioning. He wrote a number of operas for the various theatres
of Italy, living temporarily in Rome, in Naples, or wherever else his
vocation as a conductor of his works happened to call him. From
1784-1787 he lived at Florence, writing exclusively for the theatre of
that city. The productions of this period of his life are very numerous,
consisting of operas, both comic and serious, cantatas, and various
sacred compositions. The following works may be mentioned amongst many
others:--_Caio Mario_; the three biblical operas, _Assalone_, _La
Giuditta_ and _Il Sacrificio d' Abramo_; also _Il Convito di Pietra_;
and _La Ballerina amante_, a pretty comic opera first performed at
Venice with enormous success.

About the year 1788 Cimarosa went to St Petersburg by invitation of the
empress Catherine II. At her court he remained four years and wrote an
enormous number of compositions, mostly of the nature of _pieces
d'occasion_. Of most of these not even the names are on record. In 1792
Cimarosa left St Petersburg, and went to