CIMAROSA, Domenico. – Italian opera composer of the 18th century, born in Aversa in 1749. He studied in Naples with the organist P. Polcabo and later at the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto (1761–72) with Manna, Sacchini, Penaroli, and subsequently with Piccinni. He was at the court of St. Petersburg (1787–91), summoned there by Catherine II, then in Vienna, Naples, and finally Venice, where he died on 11 January 1801.
He composed various oratorios: *Assalonne* (1782), *Betulia liberata*, *Giuditta*, *Iefte*, *Il sacrificio d’Abramo*, preserved in manuscripts in the private and public libraries of Rome, Naples, Vienna, and Dresden, as well as sacred music, including masses and motets (manuscripts in Naples, Milan, Berlin, Brussels, Einsiedeln, London, and Munich).