GIOVANNI BATTISTA PERGOLESI

The years of the Conservatory

Once arrived at Naples Pergolesi found that plurality in the different levels was a characteristic of the musical Neapolitan culture: aspects of the folkloric Southern traditions introduced by the huge number of emigrants from the country, recent aspects derived from their cultivated translations made by musicians from the town, and so on to more erudite and solemn expressions created by professional musicians in a sacred or secular context, coexisted and intersected without efforts. The same variety can be found also inside the theatrical tradition, especially in comic opera, where a substratum related to popular festivities and to tumbler and comic’s recitation can be still recognized in the intermezzo and musical comedy in Neapolitan dialect. Conservatories were a meeting point for these different cultural layers, and it is representative the fact that pupils were ‘’utilised’’ in a big variety of social contexts: from church services to processions, from patronal festivities to civil celebrations, from street to churches, bourgeois houses, aristocratic salons, theatres. It is not surprising that Pergolesi soon assimilated that variety of languages (in the same way he learned Neapolitan dialect perfectly) and benefited of it in his works.
Pergolesi started studying at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo in 1723. It was the only institute (between the four Neapolitan Conservatories) under the ecclesiastic authority. Atmosphere there was extremely rich of stimulus and suggestions, but life should be really hard due to the rigid schedule and to the kind and quality of work students had to do to ensure their instruction and maintenance. Probably Pergolesi paid an admission tax, but not an annual fee, because registers proved his remarkable activity for the institution, at the beginning as cantor and then as violinist. In 1729 Pergolesi was called “capoparanza”, that means director of a group of six, twelve or even more students, that used to sing in different hosting places. He studied violin with Domenico De Matteis, composition until 1728 with the old Gaetano Greco and from 1728 with the erudite and brilliant Francesco Durante. The few months spent with Leonardo Vinci, master in Neapolitan comic opera and very sensitive to the new Metastasian poetry, had been decisive for his future.
Pergolesi spent about seven years at the Conservatory, until 1731. In this year, a sacred drama in three acts, Li prodigi della Divina Grazia nella conversione e morte di S. Guglielmo duca d’Aquitania, was represented in S. Agnello Maggiore Monastery Cloister. It was a traditional opera, a sort of final composition text, to demonstrate students’ acquired technical and stylistic maturity. From its structure, exemple of a genre that found his roots in Baroque tradition, a Neapolitan character emerges: Capitan Cuosemo, who expresses himself in a dense dialect, a lively gesticulation and a very comic repertoire, creating a background for the main serious and devotional action. This is the first Pergolesi’s approach to comic opera. Pergolesi’s style, that the composer will refine with a popular characters’ delineation, appears here in an extremely dense and sanguine dimension, that reflects the picturesque and plebeian reality of Naples’ alleys and squares that has deeply impressed his imagination. Probably it belongs to this period a circumstantial motet, found and titled In hac diem tam decora. A very different style characterizes another sacred composition that tradition erroneously attribute to Pergolesi’s debut: La Fenice sul rogo, ovvero La morte di San Giuseppe oratorio, probably performed in Filippinis’ oratory, a place close to Pergolesi since his Conservatory’s years. Here, in an extremely refined context, enriched by the use of unusual instruments, as traversal flute, “English way” viola, and archlute, used in a concert version, Pergolesi reveals his idea of religion as an extreme humanization of the sacred, as a subtle psychological introspection of religious experience: that sort of behaviour, once refined and transfigured, can be recognized even in his last compositions Salve Regina and Stabat Mater. From a stylistic point of view, these compositions prove Pergolesi’s close adherence to the most progressive Neapolitan music tendencies and his great interest for musical theatre: Pergolesi’s models are Vinci’s, Leo’s, Hasse’s, De Majo’s drama and comic opera scores that were an hit on contemporary stages. All these demanding works marked the birth of a new and great composer.

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AUCASSIN ET NICOLETTE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI AUCASSIN ET NICOLETTE Cantafavola del XII Secolo per una voce, qualche strumento e qualche marionetta musica di Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco soprano Chiara Ersilia Trapani soprano Evgenia [...]
PIANETTI EXPERIENCE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, MUSEI CIVICI DI PALAZZO PIANETTI PIANETTI EXPERIENCE musiche di Spinacino, Borrono, Cutting, Dowland, Gastoldi, Verdolet, Galilei, Vecchi, Veracini, Bach, Puccini Solisti della Scuola Musicale G.B. Pergolesi di [...]
PIANETTI EXPERIENCE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, MUSEI CIVICI DI PALAZZO PIANETTI PIANETTI EXPERIENCE musiche di Spinacino, Borrono, Cutting, Dowland, Gastoldi, Verdolet, Galilei, Vecchi, Veracini, Bach, Puccini Solisti della Scuola Musicale G.B. Pergolesi di [...]
PIANETTI EXPERIENCE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, MUSEI CIVICI DI PALAZZO PIANETTI PIANETTI EXPERIENCE musiche di Spinacino, Borrono, Cutting, Dowland, Gastoldi, Verdolet, Galilei, Vecchi, Veracini, Bach, Puccini Solisti della Scuola Musicale G.B. Pergolesi di [...]
PIANETTI EXPERIENCE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, MUSEI CIVICI DI PALAZZO PIANETTI PIANETTI EXPERIENCE musiche di Spinacino, Borrono, Cutting, Dowland, Gastoldi, Verdolet, Galilei, Vecchi, Veracini, Bach, Puccini Solisti della Scuola Musicale G.B. Pergolesi di [...]
SUITE ITALIENNE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE SUITE ITALIENNE musiche di Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Respighi, Stravinskj, Corigliano, Szymanowski violino Francesca Dego pianoforte Francesca Leonardi Scopri di più!  Acquista subito  Futuro.Infinito
ROBERTO PROSSEDA VS TEO TRONICO
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE ROBERTO PROSSEDA VS TEO TRONICO musiche di Chopin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Mozart /Grieg, Scriabin, Milhaud pianista robot Teo Tronico pianoforte Roberto Prosseda Scopri di più!  Acquista [...]
RICHARD GALLIANO & FRIENDS_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI RICHARD GALLIANO & FRIENDS musiche di Bach, Galliano, Vivaldi, Piazzolla fisarmonica Richard Galliano I Solisti Aquilani quintetto violino Daniele Orlando, Federico Cardilli viola Gianluca Saggini violoncello Giulio [...]
BAROQUE RELOADED Cantate de l'Espace-Temps_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI BAROQUE RELOADED Cantate de l'Espace-Temps musiche di Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Scarlatti e Mantanus pianoforte ed elettronica Matthieu Mantanus visual art designer Sara Caliumi soprano Giulia Bolcato clavicembalo Rossella Policardo [...]
A RIVEDER LE STELLE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
MAIOLATI SPONTINI, PARCO COLLE CELESTE A RIVEDER LE STELLE musiche di Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, B. Evans pianoforte Carlo Guaitoli e con la partecipazione di Gianluca Masi, [...]
WINE OPERA - AMORE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
MAIOLATI SPONTINI, AZ. AGRICOLA PIEVALTA WINE OPERA - AMORE musiche di Spontini, Schumann, Donizetti, Ciajkovskij, Bellini, Chopin, Paderewski, Rachmaninov voci Carmela Osato, Linwei Guo, Luca Giorgini, Ioanna [...]
CONCERT JOUET_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE CONCERT JOUET Concerto semiserio per voce e violoncello musiche di Legend, Parra, Mina, Orff, Piaf, Bach, Schumann, Carrillo, Minog, anonimi voce Paola [...]
BACH SANSSOUCI_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE BACH SANSSOUCI musiche di J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach pianoforte Ramin Bahrami flauto Massimo Mercelli   Scopri di più!  Acquista subito  Futuro.Infinito
ACCORDI E DISACCORDI_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE ACCORDI E DISACCORDI musiche di Di Virgilio, Reinhardt chitarre Alessandro Di Virgilio e Dario Berlucchi contrabbasso Dario Scopesi In collaborazione con Jesi Jazz Festival 2019  [...]
E COME IL VENTO_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, CHIESA DI SAN NICOLO’ In occasione delle celebrazioni per i 200 anni della composizione dell’Infinito di Giacomo Leopardi E COME IL VENTO musiche di Bach, [...]
PASSIONE BAROCCA_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, CHIESA DI SAN NICCOLO’ PASSIONE BAROCCA: LA FURIA E L'ESTASI musiche di Vivaldi, Haendel, Pergolesi e Bach soprano Gemma Bertagnolli violino e maestro concertatore Judith Hamza Gli Archi [...]
VIBRATO SUBLIME_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI VIBRATO SUBLIME musiche di Schubert, Debussy, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky Residart Chamber Orchestra violino Yu Kurokawa pianoforte Keigo Mukawa violoncello Gauthier Broutin in collaborazione con Residart Festival VII [...]
NIJINSKY danza musica e poesie_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE NIJINSKY danza musica e poesie a cura di Daniele Cipriani musica di Claude Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune coreografia Amedeo Amodio voce Vanessa Gravina [...]
WINE OPERA - GELOSIA_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
SAN PAOLO DI JESI, AZ. AGRICOLA VIGNAMATO WINE OPERA - GELOSIA musiche di Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini voci Eleonora Nota, Luca Giorgini, Stefano Gagliardi, [...]
UNA NUOVA STAGIONE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE UNA NUOVA STAGIONE musiche di Mozart, Rota, Vivaldi I Solisti Aquilani violino solista e Konzertmeister Daniele Orlando video mapping a cura di Accademia di Belle Arti [...]
COLOURS JAZZ ORCHESTRA & BAPTISTE HERBIN_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, PIAZZA DELLE MONACHETTE COLOURS JAZZ ORCHESTRA & BAPTISTE HERBIN musiche di McHugh, Gershwin, Brookmeye, Fain, Carmichael, Shearing, Coltrane, Jobim direttore Massimo Morganti sassofono Baptiste Herbin in collaborazione [...]
NEL GIARDINO DI PARTENOPE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
MONSANO, CHIESA DEGLI AROLI NEL GIARDINO DI PARTENOPE Il violoncello a Napoli nel XVIII secolo musiche di Pergolesi, Porpora, Greco, De Ruvo, Alborea, Lanzetti, Supriani violoncello Gaetano [...]
OPERA!_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI OPERA! brani celebri d’opera ricomposti da Giuseppe Vessicchio, Lamberto Curtoni, Naomi Berrill, Cristian Carrara direttore Beatrice Venezi Time Machine Ensemble NUOVA COMMISSIONE FESTIVAL [...]
ALICE_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI ALICE Art et Décoration musiche di Satie, Fauré e Ravel voce Alice pianoforte Michele Fedrigotti  Scopri di più!  Acquista subito  Futuro.Infinito
WINE OPERA - FRIVOLEZZA_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
22/09/2019    
11:00 - 13:00
CUPRAMONTANA, COLONNARA WINE OPERA - FRIVOLEZZA musiche di Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Gounod, Massenet, Bizet, Delibes, Mascagni, Bernstein voci Andrea Tabili, Eleonora Nota, Luca Giorgini, Martina Rinaldi, [...]
INTO THE WOODS_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
In occasione della Festività di San Settimio JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI INTO THE WOODS Musical I atto musica di Stephen Sondheim libretto di James Lapine pianoforte Maria Galantino [...]
“CARMEN” DOVE SONO LE EMOZIONI
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI "CARMEN" DOVE SONO LE EMOZIONI Social Opera regia Gianfranco Frelli assistente alla regia Milena Gregori espressività corporea Sara Lippi Compagnia “Operah” (laboratorio di teatro e [...]
POPULARIA AUREA_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI POPULARIA AUREA musiche di Bach, Villa Lobos, Bartòk, Piazzolla, Bizet-Borne, Bibbò commenti narrativi di Epicuro, Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella, Gaetano Filangieri flauto traverso Mauro [...]
ANTONELLA RUGGIERO_Pergolesi Spontini Festival
JESI, TEATRO G.B. PERGOLESI ANTONELLA RUGGIERO voce Antonella Ruggiero chitarra Francesco Buzzurro  Scopri di più!  Acquista subito  Futuro.Infinito
29 Sep
JESI, CHIESA DI SAN GIOVANNI BATTISTA CONCERTO DI CHIUSURA musiche di Vivaldi e Telemann direttore Stefano Campolucci tromba Giuliano Gasparini Orchestra della Scuola Musicale G.B. Pergolesi Coro della [...]
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