appointed him Kapellmeister to the court, and commissioned a new opera. The result was Il matrimonio segreto, to a text by Giovanni Bertati, based on the 1766 play, The Clandestine Marriage, by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick. The opera, performed at the Burgtheater on 7 February 1792, was so successful that Leopold had it played again the same evening in his private chambers – "the longest encore in operatic history" as one critic put it. Cimarosa did not consider the work his best, but it has a better libretto than some of his other comic operas, the plot clear, the characters well drawn and elaborate disguises and coincidences dispensed with. The composer's own favourite of his operas was Artemisia, regina di Caria, a serious work, composed for Naples five years later. Later years Cimarosa's success was international. He was, together with Paisiello, the most popular opera composer in the late 18th century. He composed 60 opere buffe and 20 opere serie, many of which quickly entered the repertoire of opera houses throughout Europe. They were performed in Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg, London, Prague and Stockholm, as well as St Petersburg, Vienna and all the main Italian cities. Between 1783 and 1790 Haydn conducted performances of thirteen Cimarosa operas for his employers at Schloss Esterházy and many of the pieces were given several times. Cimarosa's La ballerina amante, a commedia per musica first performed in Naples was chosen as the inaugural work at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon, in June 1793. Three weeks after the premiere of Il matrimonio segreto the emperor Leopold died suddenly. His successor, Francis II, was less interested in music than Leopold had been, and in 1793, Cimarosa returned to Naples. In 1796 he was appointed principal organist of the royal chapel, and he continued to produce new operas and revise older ones. He reworked L'italiana in Londra and I due baroni, adapting them for local taste by adding sections in Neapolitan dialect. The most important new works from this last phase of his career were Le astuzie femminili (1794) and two serious operas, Penelope (1794) and Gli Orazi ed i Curiazi (1796); the first two of these were composed for Naples, and the last for La Fenice in Venice. During the occupation of Naples by the troops of the French Republic, in 1799 Cimarosa joined the liberal party, but the monarchy was soon