Scan 136
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.4, Ed.3, 1908
12 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Conversione di San Guglielmo d’ Aquitania,’ performed in 1731, probably by his fellow-pupils, at the monastery of S. Agnello Maggiore. Between the acts of this was performed the comic intermezzo ‘Il maestro di musica.’ The success of the performance gained Pergolesi the protection of the Prince of Stigliano, a distinguished amateur, for whose marriage in 1723 Alessandro Scarlatti had composed a serenata. Through the influence of this nobleman, who was equerry to the Viceroy of Naples, aided by the patronage of the Prince of Avellino and the Duke of Maddaloni, Pergolesi was commissioned to write an opera for the court theatre, and produced ‘La Sallustia’ with the comic intermezzo ‘Nerino e Nibbia’ (sometimes known as ‘Amor fa l’ uomo cieco’) for the winter season of 1731. The opera was successful, but the intermezzo did not please. ‘Ricimero,’ produced in 1732 with the intermezzo ‘Il geloso schernito,’ was a failure, which may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that Pergolesi composed it just after the death of his father. Discouraged by its reception, he devoted himself to other forms, and it was at this time, according to Florimo, that he wrote thirty sonatas for two violins and bass at the request of the Prince of Stigliano; twenty-four of these were printed in London. He was also commissioned by the municipality of Naples to write a Mass on the occasion of the earthquake of March 20, 1731. The Mass, which was for double choir and orchestra, was much admired, and was followed by a second of the same scale, which is said to have won the public praises of Leonardo Leo, who was present at the performance. Florimo further states that Pergolesi afterwards added a third and fourth choir to this work; but there is no trace remaining of any Mass by him for more than two choirs.
3In spite of the failure of ‘Ricimero’ it was not long before Pergolesi returned to dramatic composition, and in Sept. 1732, he produced at the Teatro dei Fiorentini a comic opera in Neapolitan dialect, ‘Lo frate nammorato,’ which, according to a contemporary (Chracas, Diario ordinario, 1732), met with considerable success. The following year he returned to serious opera with ‘Il prigionier’ (so called in the libretto, but generally known as ‘Il prigionier superbo’ to distinguish it from the ‘Prigioniero fortunato’ of A. Scarlatti), to which ‘La serva padrona’ furnished the intermezzi (Aug. 28, 1733). There seems no reason to suppose that the success of ‘La serva padrona’ was in any way extraordinary, especially as Pergolesi was already known as a composer of comic opera.
5It was about this time (1733-34) that Pergolesi entered the service of the Duke of Maddaloni. After he left Jesi his father had become involved in financial difficulties. His mother died in 1727, and her dowry should have been paid to her son, but her husband was unable to find the money, and even after the father’s death in 1732 Giovanni Battista still had to negotiate with the executors until 1734. On his appointment to the service of the Duke, Pergolesi appears to have considered his affairs more settled, as he sent for his aunt, Donna Cecilia Giorgi, to keep house for him. In the spring of 1734 the Duke took him to Rome, and Ghezzi the caricaturist gives an amusing account of the performance at S. Lorenzo in Lucina of a Mass by him (that in F for five voices).
7‘L’ Ill. Duca di Matalona e Duchessa fecero fare una Musica spaventosa in S. Lorenzo in Lucina con tutti Musici e Violini di Rcm, la qual Musica iu tatta dal Mastro di Cappella chiamato Pergolese il quale stà al servizio del Principe di Stigliano et è stato fatto venire da Napoli a posta e tu tatta da testa ad onore di S. Giovanni Pomuceno [i.e. St. John Nepomuk]. La qual Compositione è st.i ta spi itosa e fuorl dell’ ordinario’
9Chracas records the departure of the Duke of Maddaloni and his suite from Rome for Naples in June 1734, and Pergolesi probably returned with his patron. It is not clear whether he was in the service of both the Duke and the Prince at the same time; perhaps he left the Prince later. On Oct. 25, 1734, his opera ‘Adriano in Siria’ was performed at the Teatro di S. Bartolomeo, with ‘Livietta e Tracollo’ as intermezzi. The intermezzi were well received, but the opera did not please. It has generally been stated that Pergolesi became maestro di cappella at the Casa Santa at Loreto in this year, but this has no foundation. The archives of the ‘Holy House’ do not mention Pergolesi, and other musicians held the post without any kind of interruption during his lifetime. It is possible that the tradition may have arisen from some connection of Pergolesi either with the convent of Loreto near Avellino, some sixty miles distant from Naples, or with the Conservatorio della Madonna di Loreto at Naples itself. The libretto of ‘Il Flaminio,’ a comic opera produced at Naples in the autumn of 1735, tells us that he was organist of the royal chapel at Naples.
11On Jan. 31, 1735, the famous opera ‘L’ Olimpiade’ was produced under Pergolesi’s own direction at the Tordinona Theatre in Rome. It was badly received, and Grétry tells us that an orange was thrown at the composer’s head. It is related that Egidio Romualdo Duni, whose opera ‘Nerone’ was produced at the same theatre on May 21, assured Pergolesi that his opera was far too good to succeed, and after the result which he had foreseen did his best to console him. It is also related that the failure of ‘L’ Olimpiade’ hastened the death of the composer, who returned to Naples and devoted himself to sacred music. His devotion to sacred music, however, can only have been partial, as he produced the comic opera ‘Il Flaminio’ in the autumn at Naples (Teatro Nuovo), where it was thoroughly successful.
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