The longest encore in history

The longest encore in the history of music took place in Vienna, on a cold February evening in 1792. At the Theater an der Burg, the imperial court theatre (now the Burgtheater), the world premiere of Domenico Cimarosa's Il matrimonio segreto, conducted by the composer himself, had just finished.

The success was overwhelming. The audience applauded profusely, but it was Emperor Leopold II, the opera's patron, who brought about an unprecedented event: he didn't ask to hear an aria or duet again, as was customary, but insisted that the entire opera be started again from the beginning. He served dinner to the singers and orchestra, then invited them back on stage. Thus, in a single evening, The Secret Marriage was performed twice, for a total of approximately six hours of music and drama.

From Austria to all of Europe

That Viennese debut marked the beginning of an international career. The following year, on February 17, 1793, the opera arrived at La Scala in Milan; it was followed by Dresden, then Madrid and Barcelona. In January 1794, it arrived in London, at the King's Theatre, and in August of the same year in Lisbon. In 1801, it reached Paris, at the Théâtre-Italien, and during the nineteenth century, The Secret Marriage was translated into more than ten languages, from Czech to Russian.

In January 1834 it finally crossed the Atlantic, debuting at the Italian Opera House in New York, founded by Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's unforgettable librettist.

A masterpiece of comic opera

The Secret Marriage was no flash in the pan: it has remained in the repertoire to this day, considered the archetype of eighteenth-century opera buffa. What has made it immortal are the theatrical balance of the story and the melodic richness that Cimarosa delivers with lightness and finesse.

The libretto, written by Giovanni Bertati—then Poet Cesareo at the Viennese court—is generally considered his finest work. Bertati, a prolific author of comic dramas, collaborated with composers such as Galuppi, Paisiello, Anfossi, and Traetta, but found in Cimarosa the ideal interpreter of his comic talent.

Sources and models

The plot is rooted in eighteenth-century European culture. It is based on Le mariage à la mode, a pictorial cycle by William Hogarth from 1745, which inspired the English comedy The clandestine marriage (1766) by George Colman and David Garrick. From there, the subject passed to France, where it was transformed into two opéras-comiques, the second of which (Le Mariage clandestin, 1790, by de Ségur and Devienne) was probably the direct model for Bertati. The Venetian librettist, however, knew how to adapt the material to an entirely Italian tradition, rich in comic situations and plot twists.

An unrepeatable evening

The anecdote of the "infinite encore" says a lot about the cultural climate of the late eighteenth century: an emperor enjoying himself with his musicians, a theater becoming a place of collective celebration, an opera that immediately captivates the audience. It's no coincidence that that episode hasn't had a repeat performance: it remains an unrepeatable sign of the vitality of musical theater in an era when music still had the capacity to truly surprise.