Cleopatra

La Cleopatra (1789) is an opera seria in two acts by composer Domenico Cimarosa with an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Moretti.

La Cleopatra was commissioned by Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1788. Cimarosa and Moretti were instructed to keep the opera short and give it a relatively simple plot. As a result, the opera is about a hundred minutes in length which is short for an opera of that period and time. The plot is also very straightforward, lacking the typical plot twists and intrigues of other opera serias of the day. Musically the opera is made up of mostly arias with only a few duets, a quartet, a ballet, and a march. Although, music critics of the opera have admired the duet at the end of act one, the music written for the ballet, and the final quartet at the end, overall the opera is not that remarkable. The work premiered at the Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 27 September 1789.

Holograph Score: Library of Music Conservatory "San Pietro a Majella", Naples, Shelfmark: 13.2.11-12.

Original 1789 printed Libretto: Rossiyskaya Natsional'naya Biblioteka, St. Petersburg, Shelfmark: 13.16,2,4.