Zweig MS 28

Autograph full score. Written in ink on systems of five staves. Headed ‘Rondo’ in left upper margin of f. 1r. Tempo direction ‘And[ant]e’; the name of the character singing given as ‘Candida’ (f. 1r). Scored for violins, viola and unfigured bass; vocal part in the soprano clef. ‘Del Sig[no]r D. Dom[eni]co Cimarosa’, added in upper margin of f. 1r, apparently in a different hand. One full and two half bars struck through on f. 2v. Authenticated as autograph of Cimarosa by his son Paolo in ink at foot of f. 2r: ‘Tanto la musica che le parole son di proprio pugno della cara memoria di mio padre, P. Cimarosa [paraph]’. Blind stamp on the right of ff. 1-3 ‘Collezione Musicale Masseangioli’. Composer’s name added in pencil at bottom right of f. 1r.

Schlitzer lists this arietta from the Succi Catalogue, without being able to identify it as part of a longer work. It may perhaps be an aria from a lost opera. Schlitzer (p. 76), quoting the reference to a catalogue of Cimarosa’s works in the collection of Messeangelo Messeangeli bequeathed to the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna but now apparently lost, states that Cimarosa wrote many operas which are not listed by Fétis. The authentication by Paolo Cimarosa (1788-1864) may indicate that the present manuscript was part of the collection given to him by Cardinal Consalvi, a collection of autographs and copies that the elder Cimarosa had left to the Cardinal, his friend and admirer, before leaving for Russia in 1787 (see Schlitzer).